Aberdeen 2
Dundee 0
League (Premier Division)

Match Report

Newspaper extract from The Courier .

Dundee looked a certain winner at the midway point of the 3 Premier League (two points) stakes at Pittodrie on Saturday.

The Tayside representative was cruising on the bridle with solitary rival Aberdeen toiling, but Dundee failed to put this early superiority to good effect by establishing a commanding lead and was collared as it turned for home.

The stewards called Dundee's connections in to explain its running, but all they could suggest was that what had been shown was a distinct dislike for this course and an aversion to this particular opponent based on previous encounters.

Put another way (for those not clued up on racing parlance), had the Dens Parkers employed a psychiatrist for the last decade he'd have been driven demented by now trying to unravel the mysteries of the club's Aberdeen "hanu-up."

Certainly manager Jocky Scott is at a loss to explain. He emerged from the Pittodrie dressing-room, frustration and disappointment etched on his face, a man clearly stunned by the 2-0 reversal.

"We created the chances but didn't take them, which you simply must do against the top sides.

What disappointed Jocky most was the way Dundee's challenge collapsed after the Dons had struck for the second time. "The fact our workrate dropped so much is worrying because as professionals we should have kept going," he said.

Without the injured Stewart Forsyth Dundee were forced to switch George McGeachie to full-back and employ a 4-3-3 formation. This caught Aberdeen out a fact admitted by Alex. Ferguson.

However, John Brown, Ross Jack and Ray Stephen all missed great chances and when a Brown free-kick was brilliantly turned over by Gunn after the interval, you had the feeling it wasn't to be Dundee's day.

Completely against the run of play, John Hewitt put the home side in front with a fine over-head kick and shortly afterwards young Joe Miller got on the end of a perfectly measured Stark cross to settle things.

Sickening though this result is after the Dark Blues' fine start to the season, one reversal isn't a catastrophe.

Now it's on to Ibrox and Rangers in the Skol Cup on Wednesday night. 'Gers assistant Walter Smith was an interested spectator at Pittodrie.

Must do better Aberdeen? They'll need to, and undoubtedly will, play better against Celtic in their quarter-final tie.

Fergie, who sportingly acknowledged Dundee had, on the strength of their first-half performance, been unlucky, could have Jim Leighton avail able for that one although with Bryan Gunn to call upon he'll not be rushing Scotland's keeper back with undue haste.