BEFORE the first question, before he’d uttered a word, Kenny Miller sat down and put his head in his hands.
The setting was the same Livingston media room where two months earlier he’d still been conducting press duties in his first – very fleeting – steps into management.
Perhaps the only consolation on Saturday for Miller, yet to find the net for bottom-placed Dundee since he returned solely to his playing career, was that no photographer was present among the reporting pack. It was a snapper’s dream shot.
“I think I can speak for everybody in the dressing room when I apologise to the fans for the performance,” replied Miller after gathering his thoughts and addressing the first question of how to sum up a 4-0 loss to Livingston.
In what was Jim McIntyre’s first match in charge as Dundee manager since Neil McCann’s sacking, all four Livingston goals came from set-pieces. In the first half, Declan Gallagher and Craig Halkett headed home Keaghan Jacobs free-kicks, and in the second, a Steven Lawless free-kick from out wide concluded its flight by landing in the back of the net, while Alan Lithgow completed the scoring when his forehead connected successfully with Steven Lawson’s corner.
“I’ve never seen that before,” admitted former Scotland forward Miller of a team scoring four set-play goals in one game.
He added: “It was absolutely unacceptable – to come to a place like this and not stand up to the battle. If you’re not going to head that ball and put your body on the line then you’re going to toil – particularly against that team.”
Incredibly, of course, ‘that team’ scored three of their four goals from the heads of the defensive triumvirate of Gallagher, Halkett and Lithgow. But even more so, of the 12 league goals ‘that team’, fourth in the table, have scored this season, Lithgow and Lawless have two each – and eight other players one apiece.
“It’s mental,” admitted midfielder Shaun Byrne, who netted his goal in the win over Hibernian. “We are not a team of individuals, it’s about the team effort and I think it’s reflected in the spread of scorers. As soon as you start acting individually, you’ll not play in this team.”
Livingston may be direct, but Byrne refuted they’re all route one.
“We get labelled as this long-ball team but we can play,” the former Celtic youth player said. “It's up to other teams to say whatever they like. We know we've got good players that can play a bit. It's about mixing it up sometimes.”
Byrne joined Livingston from Dunfermline two years ago, and a familiar face awaited him against Dundee on Saturday.
“Jim McIntyre gave me my first professional contract at Dunfermline, but I never played under him,” said Byrne. “He actually told the gaffer [Gary Holt] that he thinks one of the mistakes he made was not playing me!”
Holt’s side were utterly ruthless against McIntyre’s men, much to the delight of the Livingston faithful who revelled in Miller’s misfortune as he returned to the Tony Macaroni Arena, where he was player/manager for just seven weeks.
“Losing 4-0 hurts in any game,” said Miller. “I couldn’t care less that it was coming back here. It was just another game for me.
“The fans weren’t great, were they, but I’ve had worse welcomes from a lot bigger crowds than the thousand who were in that main stand,” added the former Rangers and Celtic player.
“I had a great working relationship with the boys. It’s been nice to see them do well this season but it hurts a bit today.
“I don’t like continually talking about that group because I’m not part of it anymore but I’ve said all along that their success is down to their continuity. They’ve kept seven or eight guys who were playing together in League One. Their togetherness is there for all to see.”
Their togetherness is there for all to see in abundance.
“Kenny was here for a wee while so we knew that he would have a few things he could pass on to Jim, but it doesn't matter what other teams know or do - if we perform how we can then we'll be a match for a lot of teams in this league,” insisted Byrne.
If Dundee have their heads in their hands, Livi are proving to have very good heads on each of their shoulders.
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