For 86 minutes of a fairly fraught, feisty encounter, it looked like it would be one of those bamboozling days when Dundee couldn’t buy a goal. Not that there’s a bloke going round Scottish football grounds selling goals – that would just be ridiculous – but even if there was, and he had a massive sale of discounted goals with various cut-price deals on equalisers, last-gasp winners or just jammy jabs, the Dens Park men still wouldn’t have got their hands on one.
Dundee had more wasted chances than a flood at a Monopoly board game warehouse but they got out of jail with four minutes left when Kane Hemmings nodded in a leveller that was just reward for their drive, doggedness and patient probing.
Amid the sighs of relief, the biggest puffing of the cheeks probably came from Greg Stewart, the 25-year-old striker who had spurned two opportunities that would certainly have been bracketed in the ‘golden’ category. “I thought I was going to do the boys out of at least a point with all the chances I’ve missed,” he said with a wry smile after Dundee safeguarded their place in the top six and kept their Highland rivals two points behind them. “It could be a big point when we’re looking back at the end of the season if it has got us into the top six. Then again, it will be two points dropped if we don’t make it.”
Paul Hartley, the Dundee manager, preferred to look on the bright side and he certainly wasn’t downbeat as he reflected on a tussle his side should have won. There are always what ifs, maybes and might have beens to mull over but Hartley knew his men had put in a good honest shift. They may have passed up a host of chances but credit had to be given to Owain Fon Williams, the Inverness keeper, who made more stops than the inventor of the ballcock.
Stewart had one clear-cut chance blocked by the Welshman with 10 minutes left when he burst clean through. Throw in a fine opportunity he blasted wide of the target just after the resumption and it didn’t make for the best of days at the office for the Dundee man. “I’ve got to do better but we kept on battling and deserved at least a point,” he added. “It shows the spirit we’ve got in the dressing room.”
There’s not much time to dwell on things, of course. On Wednesday night, Stewart and his team-mates face Celtic in the league before returning to Glasgow a couple of days later to play Rangers in the quarter-finals of the Scottish Cup at Ibrox.
“It will be a massive week for the club, the biggest in my time here,” Stewart declared. “They will be two very tough games but they’re the type of matches you want to play. It’s nice to get a rest before a big cup game but we’ve got two big games coming up and as a player you want to challenge yourself.”
At the end of another topsy-turvy weekend in Scotland’s top flight, the league still remains as tightly-packed as the Blackpool turn-off during bank holiday roadworks. Eight points separate fourth placed St Johnstone to 11th placed Kilmarnock and all those in between are either looking upwards after one good result or peering anxiously behind them after a dodgy one.
“This is the tightest the league has been,” said Ross Draper, the Inverness midfielder, who gave Inverness the lead on Saturday as he rounded the Dundee keeper and trundled in a composed finish. “Everyone is looking over their shoulder but also looking up as well, trying to nick into that fourth place. We didn’t deserve anything from the game on our second half performance. We were nowhere near what we’re capable of and what we showed in the first half. I know they scored late on - it was my mistake for the corner that led to the goal - but we’re grateful for a point. It seems like we’ve dropped a couple of points but after about an hour we’d probably have taken that.”
While Dundee have two trips to Glasgow coming up, Inverness are at the other end of the M8 for a couple of Capital confrontations. They visit Hearts on league duty on Tuesday night before a Scottish Cup last eight contest with Hibernian on Saturday.
“Thankfully we’ve got a game on Tuesday to try and put right the things we didn’t do right against Dundee,” he added.
In this game, there are always chances to turn things around. It took them a while but Dundee finally took their chance on Saturday.
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