The Dons still have hopes of a top six finish ahead of the final game before the split next Saturday, but Jim Goodwin was frustrated that his side’s fate isn’t in their own hands after they twice squandered the lead at Dens Park.
“We came here to try and win the game and I thought we deserved to because we were the better team over the piece. We had 20 attempts on goal, almost half of them on target. We hit the crossbar in the first half, a good attempt from Christian Ramirez cleared off the line and we could have been two or three goals clear at half-time and had a far more comfortable afternoon.
“Give credit to Dundee, they never gave up, they kept going right to the end. I do have serious questions about the build up to their first goal. I don’t like pointing the finger at individual players but on this occasion, Charlie Adam has caught Lewis Ferguson in the face with a flailing arm, the referee has a great view of it.
“It’s a very simple decision but what should have been a free-kick for us, five seconds later ends up as one for them and thereafter it ends up in the back of our net. I don’t see how the referee misses that because he has the best view on the pitch of it and it wasn’t just once. He pushed him away with his hand once then caught Lewis again a split second later. I can only call it as I see it.
“But I’m not wanting to make excuses, from the free-kick, we have to defend it better. We know the quality Charlie Adam has from a dead ball, and we have to deal with it better at the back stick. Then the second one is the exact same. Charlie’s an experienced player, he takes the nudge from Marley Watkins and goes over easily, then he puts in a fantastic delivery but again, we need to take control of that situation when the ball comes in. We’ve some big guys in the middle of the goal and Mullen shouldn’t be getting the kind of space he got there to level the game up.
“The most frustrating bit is we caused them a lot of problems and didn’t score enough goals. Since I came in here, we’ve not been gifted any goals, we have had to work hard for any that we get. It took a bit of brilliance from Calvin Ramsay, cutting in on his weaker left foot, to get us ahead, a great finish at the near post.
“Ross McCrorie’s goal, he took a really good touch to get away from the defender and then had the awareness to slide it across the face of goal and tuck it in the bottom left corner. Two very good goals to score from our point of view and that should be enough to take maximum points in any game, but it wasn’t the case today.
“The one positive we take from it all is that we’re still in the hunt. If we can go and beat Ross County, which will not be easy, then we can still get the top six, albeit we are relying on Hibs not winning their game at Tynecastle next week. Malky Mackay will be saying the exact same thing to his players, so it makes for a big afternoon at Pittodrie next Saturday.”
