Dundee boss James McPake says his players and staff did club legend Doug Cowie proud after seeing off Motherwell 3-0 at Dens Park.
The club is in mourning today after news emerged that the man who has made more appearances for Dundee than anyone else passed away at the age of 95.
Cowie remains the Dark Blues’ longest-serving player and played 446 matches over 15 seasons at Dens Park.
During that time he won two League Cups and featured in two World Cups for Scotland.
‘Fitting tribute’
Following a minute’s silence before today’s game, the present day Dark Blues went on to dominate Motherwell with goals from Luke McCowan, Danny Mullen and Ryan Sweeney earning victory.
“I think it was a fitting tribute to the club’s record appearance holder,” said McPake.
“You could feel the atmosphere in the stands before the game.
“We used it in our team talk for Doug and it was a fitting tribute to a real legend at this football club.
“That was at the top of our minds and that’s what the win was for.
“Today we had real energy and desire. I think a lot of that came from the crowd as well and how they were feeling about the loss of a club legend.
“Small things like the coaching staff work out of the Doug Cowie lounge and things like that. Wee things like that came up today.
“It was fitting and I think the players and coaching staff did the club proud.”
Danny Mullen
McPake hailed the Man of the Match performance from striker Mullen as he made it two goals in two games since his return from an ankle injury.
The Dens boss, though, was frustrated to see his frontman denied the opening goal early on thanks to the offside flag.
“Danny has been excellent and deserved more than what he got. He’s annoyed he didn’t score the header in the second half.
“He is fighting with two international strikers to stay in the team and he scored a perfectly good goal (that was ruled out).
“It annoys me because when I make a mistake as a manager I get hung out to dry.
“For the life of me I don’t get why we didn’t get that goal but I’ll let it go.”
Ashcroft and Anderson
The only disappointment of an impressive performance from Dundee was the loss of both Lee Ashcroft and Max Anderson to injury.
“Lee Ashcroft going off was a sore one for us. It’s his hamstring,” the Dens gaffer said.
“He was complaining about it before and we were about to make the change before he had to open up and felt the pop.
“Missing him was disappointing but to be fair to Liam Fontaine, he was excellent when he came on. He’s a real calming influence.”
Anderson, meanwhile, is expected to be OK with McPake adding: “He had a bit of fatigue and we got him off at the right time because we need him.
“He’s an exceptional young talent.”
