ST MIRREN at least did their bit by winning at Dens Park, just about in the end, but will still face a Premiership play-off and it’s what they deserve after what has been an underwhelming season.
They needed to better Hamilton Academicals’ result. The Accies beat St Johnstone and finished tenth. It’s ended fairly.
St Mirren spent most of the season in the bottom two places for a reason. Jack Ross was too good a manager this club could hope to replace. Alan Stubbs certainly wasn’t the man, he signed a remarkable number of duds and in all honesty, this was as good as Oran Kearney, a PE teacher from the part-time Irish league, could have achieved.
St Mirren will go to Tannadice on Thursday to face Dundee United in the first-leg and then next Sunday is the return in Paisley. Kearney’s men are favourites but this is far from a certainty.
It's going to be a tense play-off but then they always are.
The St Mirren support made some amount of noise at the start. Some 2000 and more had travelled through from Paisley hoping, perhaps even expecting, things to go their way. It lasted 14 minutes.
Kenny Miller fed the ball to Paul McGowan who produced a lovely pass along the grass to Cammy Kerr, who got the wrong side of St Mirren’s Kyle Magennis, and the Dundee captain slotted the ball past Vaclav Hladky.
And almost immediately, news came through of Ziggy Gordon scoring for Hamilton. Ah, well.
St Mirren needed help from others and five minutes after going behind, Darren O’Dea, on his last game before retirement, got himself sent off.
When last man, this most likeable of footballers was dispossessed by Brad Lyons who he then brought down. Referee Alan Muir was right to send off the Irishman. Even the St Mirren players looked sorry for them.
“It’s not how I wanted it to finish but it wasn't about me, it was about the start of an new cycle for the club," said O'Dea. "Finlay Robertson, Josh Mulligan, Lyle Cameron, Max Anderson are great young kids and we have plenty more behind them.
“I went out in style though, eh? I wanted to do a Zidane with a headbutt but it ended up with a bad touch.
“It's about the club though and it’s time to get to work quickly."
St Mirren had more of the ball for the rest of the first half but found Dundee’s backline a tough wall to get through. Their best effort came on 29 minutes when Kyle McAllister cut in from the right, hit a nice shot with his left which Dundee keeper Jack Hamilton did well to keep out.
St Mirren had nothing really to lose in the second 45 and from the start threw everything at Dundee in hope of finding two goals and that St Johnstone could do them a turn in Lanarkshire. They equalised nine minutes after he break.
A clever backheel by Danny Mullen sent Paul McGinn to the by-line, the right-back crossed and at the back post was substitute Cody Cooke who rose high and got enough power on his header to force the ball past Hamilton. It was 2-1 four minutes later.
Stephen McGinn’s superb pass put Lyons through for a shot which was blocked by Ryan McGowan, the ball came to Cooke and he guided his shot into the bottom corner.
But as he slid on his knees in front of the St Mirren fans, the celebrations were cut short because Hamilton had made it 2-0.
And then on 73 minutes, a lovely pass by Dundee’s Ethan Robson picked out Scott Wright and his superb finish got the relegated men level.
St Mirren’s players would have known what was happening elsewhere, so they deserve credit for keeping going and three minutes on went ahead again after Ryan Flynn got into the Dundee box, the ball came to Cooke whose shot looked to have been saved by Hamilton but the ball got past the keeper and trundled over the line to give Cooke a hat-trick.
Dundee were down to nine men by this stage. Genserix Kusunga limped off and all three substitutions has been made by stand-in manager James McPake. It summed up their season.
"All I asked was for them to give the fans something they could take away that was positive and make them believe next year we can have a chance of turning all these games we're losing into wins," said McPake.
Scorers
Dundee: Kerr 14, Wright 73
St Mirren: Cooke 54, 58, 76
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