Aberdeen 1
Dundee 0
League Cup (2nd Round)

Match Report

Dundee were knocked out of the League Cup by Aberdeen in a close, hard fought contest that was settled by a Darren Mackie goal after 16 minutes; the first time Aberdeen have beaten the Dee at Pittodrie since 1993.

Aberdeen threatened to blow Dundee away in a blistering opening, and the Dee were hardly in the game for the first half hour. Dundee recovered well and matched Aberdeen for most of the remainder of the match. The Dons deserved their win, however. Apart from their fine opening even when Dundee were pushing them back they were still able to break and create better chances than the Dee.

The only change from Saturday's disappointing defeat at Livingston was Ryan Conroy starting instead of Jamie McCluskey.

Aberdeen came flying at Dundee from the start. The pace of their younger players was unnerving the Dee defence and it was no surprise when the Dons took a deserved lead.

The impressive Pawlett flew past Irvine. His deep cross was headed down by Clark for Mackie to take a touch, spin and shoot high past Douglas from six yards.

It could quickly have been two, but Douglas tipped a ferocious Arnason shot from 30 yards round the post.

Mackie nearly scored a carbon copy of his goal, taking a Magennis cross, spinning and shooting, but wide this time.

Pawlett was giving Gary Irvine a hugely uncomfortable opening half hour, and ran away from the full back again to force a desperate clearance from McKeown.

At last Dundee started to get to grips with the game. The supply to Pawlett was cut off, and Irvine snapped into a couple of quick tackles that must have boosted his confidence.

The first half ended with Dundee starting to pass with far greater urgency and confidence, pushing Aberdeen back for long spells. The Dee's best move of the half ended with O'Donnell side footing Conroy's cross straight to Brown. However, the second goal nearly came at the other end, when Magennis headed Clark's cross over just before the half time whistle.

Dundee continued to play their way back into the game after half time, building neat passing moves. Sadly they lacked the penetration to hurt Aberdeen and it was the more direct approach of the home side that looked more likely to produce a goal. Rab Douglas kept Dundee in the match with a magnificent save, turning a Pawlett shot onto the post with the Dons fans already starting to celebrate. Foster turned in the rebound, but from an offside position.

Foster came close for Aberdeen with a cross shot that flashed wide of the far post. Dundee went straight up the other end and Brown was happy to turn Milne's 25 yard shot round for a comer. O'Donnell was next to try his luck from distance, but Brown pawed the ball away.

Dundee's last half chance came on 87 minutes when Riley was clear on the right. He fluffed his attempted lob and Aberdeen were able to see out the game comfortably, keeping the ball deep in the Dundee half.

After a bitterly disappointing performance against Livingstone this was a far better showing from Dundee. The players deserve credit for the way they reacted to Aberdeen's opening half hour and pulled themselves back into the game.

The defence stuck to their task and learned to deal better with Aberdeen's pace. Once Gary Irvine had mastered the threat from Pawlett he featured strongly in most of the attacks down the right.

The midfield gave the defence better protection and were able to pass their way neatly up the field, but unfortunately Dundee lacked the penetration to create clear chances. All the hard work and good linking by Bayne and Milne came to nothing, and the closest Dundee came to scoring was with shots from distance.

Match report written by James Christie - Official Dundee website