Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

3 talking points as Dundee got off bottom spot with history-breaking win over Aberdeen

Leigh Griffiths, Lee Ashcroft and Shaun Byrne.
Leigh Griffiths, Lee Ashcroft and Shaun Byrne.

Dens Park, 6 o’clock, miserable weather and two teams desperately struggling for three points.

Charlie Adam was back, Leigh Griffiths was back – the pair teamed together in Dundee shirts for the first time.

Those were the ingredients for the Dark Blues to turn around their fortunes, finally breaking their winning duck with the 2-1 success over Aberdeen.

More than breaking their duck, they also broke the stranglehold the Dons had held over them for almost two decades.

This was Dundee’s first win over Aberdeen in 17 attempts and their first league victory since 2004.

So what do we take away from the Dark Blues’ best display of the season?

Key men returning to play key roles

Charlie Adam celebrates at full-time.

It didn’t take a genius to notice Dundee had missed skipper Charlie Adam over the past few weeks.

What was clear from the first whistle on Saturday was Adam had missed being out there too.

The concern coming back from injury might have been a lack of match sharpness. However, there was no sign of that.

Pinging cross-field balls, nutmegging Scott Brown and rattling into tackles, the skipper led by example.

Lee Griffiths celebrates

Also playing a leading role was Leigh Griffiths.

Back after an injury himself and still searching for goals and sharpness, questions had been raised over his recent form.

The Scotland man, though, shrugged those off to open the scoring with a key goal, notching the 34th Dundee goal of his career.

Defence

Dundee didn’t defend their box well at St Johnstone a fortnight ago.

The two week break, though, gave them time to sort that out and they obviously used that time wisely.

Lee Ashcroft ended the match with a bandaged head following a head knock with Ryan Sweeney similarly unflappable throughout the 90 minutes.

Jordan Marshall and Lee Ashcroft get to grips with Christian Ramirez.

The spirit of the Dundee players was typified midway through the first half as first Lee Ashcroft blocked from Ryan Hedges, then Cammy Kerr threw himself in front of the next effort from Christian Ramirez before Jordan McGhee did the same to stop Lewis Ferguson’s strike.

And with 10 minutes added on at the end, the Dark Blues had to be strong deep into the Saturday night.

Shaun Byrne

As much as Dundee gained in the rain on Saturday evening, with three points and the returns of Charlie Adam and Leigh Griffiths, there may also have been a hefty cost.

Midfielder Shaun Byrne has been a standout all season for the Dark Blues but suffered a worrying injury late on in a challenge with Declan Gallagher and was stretchered off.

Shaun Byrne was stretchered off.

Manager James McPake confirmed Byrne had gone to hospital to check on the knee injury and was in real pain.

As important as seeing captain Adam back in the middle of the park, losing the protection at the base of the midfield would be a huge blow should Byrne be sidelined for a significant length of time.

 

‘We’ve missed him’: Charlie Adam return a huge boost for Dundee against Aberdeen says James McPake as boss queries red card