So, the football year of 2016 ended as it began on the banks of the Tay with Dundee claiming an important derby victory that has given them some cushioning from what looks set to be a cut-throat relegation battle in the New Year.
And as they looked forward to a few days off before redoubling their efforts to ensure that Scotland’s fourth city has a Premiership presence throughout 2017, they could draw confidence from a considerable compliment from an unlikely source since this time around opposing manager Tommy Wright reckoned his ultimately well beaten side had put in arguably their most creative away performance of the season.
However while the extension of their undefeated home run to more than two months, incorporating four wins and a draw in five matches, will help reinforce the impression that Dens Park is becoming one of the tougher places to visit in the Premiership, there was no over-excitement in home ranks.
“The manager has told us to keep concentrating and work hard and that’s what we’ve done every week at home. It’s good to get a win and a clean sheet today as well,” was the analysis of Faissal El Bakhtaoui, scorer of the goal that sent his side on their way.
The quality of that counter and, in particular, the 24-year-old Frenchman’s finish, offered the latest evidence of manager Paul Hartley’s capacity to identify and recruit players from the lower divisions who can step up and get a job done.
Having previously elevated Greg Stewart and Kane Hemmings to great effect, on the back of seeing a fair bit of them when they were at Cowdenbeath and he was managing Alloa, Hartley had a major job to do when both left in the summer and it was always going to take time to replace the players who had supplied well over half of his team’s Premiership goals in the previous season.
With 27-year-old Canadian international Marcus Haber having scored the injury time goal that capped a remarkable comeback win against Hearts eight days earlier and played an important role in both Dundee’s second and third on Saturday, it seems he may be onto something again, albeit It was always going to take a bit of time to accommodate different playing styles and skillsets as El Bakhtaoui acknowledged after registering what was just his second goal of the season.
“It’s not easy when you’re a new person coming into the club and it’s not easy to adapt to the team. I think I need more time to work harder every single week in training to show the manager I can play in the team and to prove when I get a game that I can do something,” said the scorer of 31 goals in 70 appearances during his previous four years at Dunfermline Athletic.
“Obviously it’s a big step up from League One to the Premier League. I play against better players now so I need to work harder, but I think I can play at this level.”
A change of formation allowed them to field Haber, homegrown youngster Craig Wighton, whom Hartley has carefully nurtured and El Bakhtaoui who observed: “The manager told me to play on the right today and I’m happy to do that as well.”
While, then, Saints boss Wright was entitled to be generally pleased with how his men, currently very secure in the top six, set about their work and continued to until the end, his contention that it was more a case of their mistakes having gifted Dundee their goals than anything else must be set against the fact that their hosts looked to be re-asserting themselves among the more dangerous attacking forces in the competition, just as they were this time last year when United were beaten midway through a campaign which brought about a shift in the city's balance of power.
That impression was helped by central defender Kostadin Gadzhalov - who also helped ensure a rare clean sheet was maintained - showing composure and finishing power worthy of a striker in scoring their second following Haber’s chest down, while the pressure the Canadian applied was what forced Steven Anderson into the contest sealing own goal as both stretched to get to a typically well delivered Tom Hateley cross from the right at the near post.
All in all, then, this was a satisfactory way for the Premiership’s Tayside contingent to head into the break. Admittedly St Johnstone may be a tad disappointed by the end of a decent unbeaten run but they are still in a position to be looking more towards competing for a place in European competition once again rather than worrying about being dragged into the relegation battle. Meanwhile Dundee’s home form in particular suggests that once the mid-season break is over they may have the capacity, as Hartley was justified in suggesting on Saturday afternoon, to climb into the top half of the table come the crucial stage of the season in a couple of months’ time.
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