An already bad night for Dundee took a turn for the worse when defender Julen Etxabeguren was rushed to hospital with a suspected ruptured Achilles.
The Spanish centre-half, who has had more than his fair share of injuries, had to be carried off on a stretcher after 69 minutes of the Dark Blues’ home clash with Partick Thistle.
Sadly for Etxabeguren, it was also his own goal after 29 minutes that separated the sides as the Jags replaced the Dens men in the Premiership’s top six with a deserved 1-0 victory.
Dundee boss Paul Hartley said: “Julen is away to hospital and we think he may have ruptured his Achilles.
“It looks like it could be a bad one for him, which is a massive blow because he has been doing really well for us.
“We will just have to wait and see what the people at the hospital say.”
As for the rather flat performance from his players as they failed to follow up excellent wins over Rangers and Motherwell, Hartley added: “I didn’t think it was a great game but our quality wasn’t there tonight.
“I was disappointed with the goal we lost.
“It was a bad one from our point of view.
“I thought we played better in the second half but we still didn’t pass the ball as well as we can.
“Thistle defended really well so credit to them for that but we didn’t create enough chances.
“It’s going to be like this right through to the split, games will be scrappy and it will be a case of grinding it out.
“We have a wee break now until our next game against St Johnstone so we will regroup and be ready to go again.”
Jags boss Alan Archibald, surely one of Scotland’s most under-rated coaches, was understandably pleased with his players.
He said: “It was the perfect away performance, really so I’m delighted.
“We didn’t sit in during the first half but every time the ball was turned over we looked dangerous.
“Dundee put us under pressure in the last 15 minutes but we handled it well.
“That’s a few clean sheets in a row now, which is very pleasing, and the three centre backs have been outstanding.
“The most we’ve stayed in the top six in the past has been 24 hours or something, so it we can stay there for the next few weeks then we can start thinking about looking up.
“But right now it’s about staying there, so that has to be the focus for the next few weeks.
“We have real confidence and have a tough Scottish Cup tie against Aberdeen coming up but we’re looking forward to it.”
