Dundee’s Premiership hopes hang by the loosest of threads after a poor 2-0 defeat at St Mirren.
A disastrous blunder from captain Charlie Adam got the Dark Blues off to the worst possible start in Paisley.
That gifted Alex Grieve a fourth-minute opener before Curtis Main finished off any lingering hopes of survival in the second half.
Manager Mark McGhee remains without a win as Dundee boss after 12 matches in charge with his side now on the verge of relegation.
Disaster
Harry Sharp kept his place in goal after impressing at Aberdeen last week with Ian Lawlor not fit enough to take a place on the bench.
Mark McGhee made two changes, looking for goals, as Zak Rudden and Luke McCowan came in. Max Anderson and Paul McMullan dropped to the bench.
And they started on the front foot, putting their hosts under pressure.
But a disastrous moment very quickly put the Dark Blues behind and right up against it.
Skipper Adam, a talisman for his boyhood team, had everything under control with the ball in his own corner.
Assist of the season from Charlie Adam 😂😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/IGOwQbDYxg
— Martin 🇺🇦 (@MartinDUFC) May 7, 2022
Only he knows who he was passing to, however, as he played a right-foot pass across his own box, giving Grieve a tap-in in the centre of goal.
The Dark Blues’ early momentum was gone and it was all St Mirren with only a superb save from Sharp stopping a goal-bound Main header from making it 2-0 on 20 minutes.
Same old story
There was much more intent about Dundee after the break but, as has happened all season, it didn’t last.
A series of corners and free-kicks brought a superb save from Jak Alnwick to deny Ryan Sweeney before Jordan McGhee hit the post within minutes of the restart.
But St Mirren’s first attack of the second period saw Main gather the ball in the area and smash a fine finish into the top corner.
From that point, there was no coming back for Dundee in the game.
And only perfection will now see any comeback in the league table with Livingston’s late equaliser at St Johnstone delaying the inevitable.
Six points behind with six to play for and seven goals to make up, relegation is all but confirmed.
Teams
St Mirren: Alnwick, Tait, Tanser, Shaughnessy, McCarthy, Main (Brophy 90), Kiltie (Flynn 82), Gogic, Erhahon (Power 77), Greive (Henderson 90), Fraser.
Subs not used: Lyness, Gilmartin.
Dundee: Sharp, Kerr, Sweeney, McGhee, Marshall, McGowan (Byrne 66), Adam (Mulligan 61), McCowan (McMullan 61), McGinn, Rudden (Anderson 74), Mullen.
Subs not used: Welsh, Fontaine, Chapman, Robertson, Daley-Campbell.
Referee: David Dickinson
