Dundee 2
St Mirren 1
League (Premier Division)

Match Report

Newspaper extract from The Courier .

The scoring firm of lain Ferguson and Ray Stephen, together again at Dens Park, got back in the goal groove last night to set Dundee's home Premier League programme off on the right foot-even though a disappointing attendance of only 4212 saw it. First Ferguson, returned from his sojourn with Rangers for at least this season, got the opener with his head. Stephen, not to be outdone, repeated the dose second half.

Overall, it was a good performance from Dundee, even though the Buddies' goal was a defensive blunder.

St Mirren were a strange mixture of skill and rough stuff. McGarvey is still a danger man for them, but does not have much support.

For Dundee, I made George McGeachie, happily returned from serious injury, the man of the match. In midfield he battled for the ball-winning it most times and he kept setting up attacks, too few of which tested Money.

Ferguson obviously is not yet at his sharpest. It is a good omen fpr Dundee that he was so effective on Saturday and scored here and still has better to come!

As expected, Ian Ferguson was on from the start, and a slow start it was, with pass backs the order of the day until the referee, after. ignoring a Godfrey tackle from behind on Harvey, suddenly penalised Ferguson for the same thing.

The ball was worked to McGarvey, who wriggled himself into space before testing Geddes, low right, with a crisp shot.

Dundee speeded up their midfield thrust and McGeachie sent Harvey through on the right of the box. Money charged down his first effort and was still in position to clutch Harvey's shot from the rebound.

Typically, McGarvey led the counter punch His cross from the left had the Dundee defence in a real dither. First Geddes had to scramble the ball clear, then did well to deflect a Lambert shot from the melee which followed.

The game had opened out and the moment every Dundee fan was waiting for came in the 15th minute.

Harvey shielded the ball against a fierce Godfrey challenge on the left of the box. He turned the defender and crossed perfectly. Iain Ferguson, who had quietly drifted in from the right wing, rose to spiral the ball high past Money's left hand.

Lifted by the goal, Dundee took over the game by moving the ball around well, though there was still a lack of real problems tor Money.

The drawback of not capitalising on pressure was highlighted in.26 minutes when down the left went McGarvey. Defenders. including keeper Geddes, were noticeable only by their absence as his cross looped over, and the unattended Brian Hamilton cracked the ball past Geddes.

This reverse seemed to lift the Dark Blues, and in quick succession McKinlay was downed on the very edge of the box while bursting through: Harvey had Money beaten with a header which clipped the top of the bar; and Stephen burst through for a shot.

The next incident came off the field. Connor was downed by a nasty tackle from behind and, after talking to Hamilton for the offence, the referee suddenly shot off the park to converse with someone in the Dundee dug-out.

There was a distinct "edge" creeping into the play, helped somewhat by the inconsistency of the ref's control of the game.

McKinlay, tackled by Hamilton, and Shannon, attempting to get to a ball in the box, were both injured within minutes of the restart. They soon recovered, but it turned nasty again in the 51st minute when Hamilton body-checked Connors as the midfielder was rounding him on the edge of the box.

Double justice followed, Hamilton was booked and, when Connor's free kick looped across, Stephen rose high in the goalmouth to head home

McGeachie seemed to be badly injured when Cooper launched himself at him a couple of minutes later, but recovered after treatment. Cooper took longer to stagger to his feet- and straight into a booking!

Ten minutes later, it was Spiers' turn to be booked for tripping McKinlay. Dundee were definitely in charge, but threatening more than they achieved.

McDowall's was the next name to go in the book when he downed Connor. Geddes caused a few nervous twitches in the Dundee camp when he got too far under a Clarke cross and could only finger-tip it clear.

A brilliant Connor left-wing run saw the ball switch from Stephen to Harvey, but the striker could not get in a shot. A double substitution in 80 minutes Jack for Harvey and Wilson for McDowall.

Just after Spiers went off for Winnie, Geddes had a brilliant save from Cooper and Money equalled it with a stop from Ferguson