PAGE one of the football cliché bible is littered with well-worn phrases trotted out on a weekly basis. Some true, some nonsensical, others bleedin' obvious.

One of the favourites churned out by managers and players is 'goals change games'. As it turns out, so do astonishingly poor and incompetent refereeing and assistant refereeing decisions, as Motherwell will surely testify after they slumped to a painful 2-0 defeat to Dundee.

Only 21 minutes were on the clock – well, there would be if Dens Park had one – when the match-altering moment abruptly smashed its way into this game. A deep looping cross from Scott McDonald on the right caught unconvincing home keeper David Mitchell off guard as he tried to pluck the ball out of the air on the line. He just about managed it but in doing so stumbled backwards into the goal, carrying the ball two yards over the line with him as he crashed into the post and then the inside of the side netting.

As the Motherwell fans started to celebrate in the Bob Shankly Stand behind Mitchell’s goal, the figures of referee John Beaton and assistant referee Ross Haswell didn’t flinch as play was waved on despite an incredulous Motherwell protesting furiously at the non-award.

“It’s clearly a goal. I thought that at the time and I’ve now seen the replay,” said a fuming Mark McGhee. “It didn’t cause us to lose the game but it caused us not to win it.

“At that point, we were starting to get at them, the crowd were putting pressure on and we could have gone on to win it. I didn’t get an explanation from the ref. You never get one. And as much as I am talking about the referee, the linesman has to help him. There are two of them and they can’t see it? I don’t understand that.

“Have I seen a worse decision? Yes. Last year at Dens when the same ref gave a penalty against Chris Cadden. I didn’t get an explanation for that one either.

“I need to say though that I was still disappointed with aspects of our first half. I was disappointed at the way we conceded in the first half and after the break, they just kept turning us.

“We also set ourselves up for that by being 1-0 down. We found it very difficult to get out against the wind and up the hill. We didn’t get going and didn’t do enough – and we lost the game ourselves.”

McGhee was right in his assessment. It was a key moment that definitely robbed Motherwell of taking the lead, but the opener on 40 minutes from young Cammy Kerr at the other end – scoring his first goal for Dundee – was not responded to. The 21-year-old did fantastically well to dispossess a dithering McDonald inside his own half to drive towards goal and play in Craig Wighton to shoot at Craig Samson. The former Peterhead loanee was switched on enough to continue his run to the back post to slam in the rebound.

It sent Motherwell into at half-time behind and the team that emerged in the second half never fully recovered or looked like shaking off the body blow of not getting the first goal. Instead, it was a resurgent Dundee who seized the opportunity offered up to them to march towards their first home win of the campaign.

Samson saved from Wighton on 50 minutes before then turning a Marcus Haber header on to the bar from close range. Defender Kevin Holt also should have scored on 67 minutes instead of dragging a poor shot wide from the edge of the area with time and space.

Motherwell simply didn’t look at the races at this point and the few hundred who had travelled up from Lanarkshire finally got the green light to head back down the road early as the match was wrapped with 10 minutes to go. Man-of-the-match Wighton turned Motherwell defender Ben Heneghan on the wing, leaving him for dead as he drove purposefully along the byeline into the box. His neat cutback went straight to Haber and the former St Johnstone man smashed the ball beyond Samson from six yards.

It is a result that takes Dundee off the foot of the table and above their visitors, albeit on goal difference, as Ross County sink to the bottom ahead of their home game with Rangers today. Their win – only their third of the Premiership season and their second in a week – may have been fortuitous in the manner it was sparked, but Paul Hartley’s team rarely looked like a team befitting such a lowly position.

“I thought that’s the best we’ve been in terms of a team performance,” said the Dundee manager, who also lost defender Kevin Gomis midway through the second half with a shoulder injury. “I felt we deserved it. Yeah we maybe got a little bit of luck but overall I think we were the better team.”