Kilmarnock 0
Dundee 1
League (Premier League)

Match Report

Gavin Rae did his hopes of a Scotland recall no harm at all yesterday as Dundee ended their five game quest for a win in the favoured surroundings of Rugby Park.

With national coach Craig Brown naming his squad for the now meaningless World Cup qualifier with Latvia on Thursday, Rae staked his claim for selection with a wonderful goal that tended the Dark Blues' unbeaten run at the Ayrshire venue to five matches and took them back above Aberdeen, Hearts and Killie in the SPLntable.

"That's one of the best goals I've scored and now I'll be keeping my fingers crossed about Scotland," said Rae.

"If it happens for me I'll be delighted but all I can do is the best I can for Dundee and if I don't make this squad then I'll try for the next one.

"After playing against Poland I was disappointed not to be included for the games against Croatia and Belgium. But I am still young and inexperienced at that level and it's not for me to go shouting about it."

Rae acknowledged the quality of his counter was at odds with the standard of the match itself.

"It wasn't a very good game from our point of view or for the fans," he said. "It was just a battle really. But, having played well in the last few games and got nothing, we've got to be happy with winning."

Boss Ivano Bonetti hailed the individual contributions of Rae-who he labelled "the complete midfielder" and the equal of anyone in England-and youngster Dave Mackay.

Defender Mackay was recalled from a loan spell with Arbroath on Saturday due to the Dark Blues lack of cover at the back.

And the game was just eight minutes old when he was handed his debut after Alessandro Romano damaged a calf.

"Mackay is a very cold minded, clever guy and he showed me that I can trust him," said Bonetti.

"We didn't play a lot of good football today and but for Gavin's strike it would have been 0-0.

"But I thought we defended well in the second-half against a very good team."

Dundee, without the suspended Walter del Rio and injured pair Georgi Nemsadze and Juan Sara but boosted by the return of Beto Carranza and Fabian Caballero, simply never got into their stride in a first-half that Killie dominated territorially.

Hardly had he taken the field than Mackay was having to clear a Paul Di Giacomo cut back which Craig Dargo was ready to convert and, as the home side continued to press, Peter Canero sent a 20-yard drive narrowly wide of Jamie Langfield's left-hand post.

Poor play on the part of Caballero, who surrendered possession deep inside the Killie half nearly had dire consequences for Dundee as Antonio Calderon released Dargo on the right then sprinted to the edge of the area to meet the cut-back.

The Spaniard's shot landed at the feet of Di Giacomo who wheeled to steer the ball past Langfield. To the relief of Caballero and his team-mates, however, the "goal" was rightly disallowed for offside.

Given the general flow of the match, albeit Killie were disappointingly lacking in the final third, it came as something of a surprise when, seven minutes from the break, the deadlock was broken at the other end.

But what a cracking strike it was from Rae, the mid- fielder thundering a right foot shot beyond Gordon Marshall from 20 yards after Steven Milne headed on a Beto Garrido cross for Mark Robertson to lay the ball into his path.

Marrocco very nearly made it two while Killie were still coming to terms with that setback with a 40-yard effort which looked a lot closer to finding the target than Marshall's relaxed demeanour suggested.

Sadly however, the second period failed to take up from where the first ended. The Dark Blues withdrew Milne in favour of Lucas Gatti in an attempt to shut up shop and, although they subsequently introduced Beto Naveda, generally they looked content to soak up whatever pressure Kilmarnock could apply.

The closest Dundee went to adding to their lead was when Caballero's dipping shot from a Robertson feed landed on the top of the net.

Meanwhile, Alan Mahood headed over from a Canero cross and Dargo, in latching onto a Peter Ngonge flick on and rounding Langfield, took the ball too far wide and allowed the keeper to recover his ground to block. Killie boss Bobby Williamson groaned,

"They've had one shot at goal in the first half and it's finished in the net and we've had all the play but I can't remember us having even one shot.

"It's really frustrating because it was mostly us doing the attacking-I don't think they had a corner-but our final ball wasn't good enough."

Williamson was unhappy with referee Tom Brown playing only three minutes added time.

"The six substitutions that were made would have accounted for that alone and there was a lot of time being wasted out there," he said. "I am not criticising Dundee for that because they were simply being professional, and killing the game and I'd like to think we'd have done the same in the same position.

"But it is up to the ref to spot these things."

Match report written by The Courier