Dundee’s Tayside tussle with St Johnstone will go down as one of the most incident-packed games of the season.
An end-to-end contest with plenty of chances for both teams, goalkeepers pulling off saves, woodwork being struck, more VAR perplexion and a last-minute winner.
Also, sadly, a bad head injury sustained by Dee loanee Michael Mellon.
It was entertaining fare for the neutral. Maybe not so much for the two sets of fans – one saw their team throw away a lead late on, the other was frustrated for over an hour as their side struggled to get back on level terms.
But it was the Dark Blues who came out on top in the end, grabbing a win that pushes them clear in sixth-place and crucially further away from the foot of the table.
Courier Sport was there to analyse the action.
Mellon incident
Let’s start with the injury to Dundee striker Mellon.
Late on he was wiped out from behind by Saints skipper Liam Gordon with Mellon suffering a big – and potentially serious – blow to the back of the head.
Immediately there was concern from the benches with both players on the ground.
Referee David Munro, however, looked at the incident and decided to let play go on.
Dundee’s counter attack fizzled out before the official stopped play.
By that time Dundee medic Dr Derek McCormack was already on the pitch attending to Mellon.
Huge credit goes to the doctor and his staff for recognising that player welfare comes before all else and ignoring the official.
Munro isn’t a popular man at Dens Park this season, having incorrectly sent off Josh Mulligan and then prompting the fury of the Dark Blues by calling off their home clash with Aberdeen in December.
This failure, however, goes beyond all that. A dreadful failure to protect the welfare of a player clearly in trouble.
As for the challenge itself, it was not a good one. Mellon didn’t know it was coming as Gordon piled through the back of him.
It was clumsy more than malicious but still nonetheless dangerous. It should have been a yellow card, and with Gordon already booked, a sending off.
Not sure why it wasn’t.
Thankfully, though, Mellon has been checked out at Ninewells and discharged. Hopefully he makes a full, speedy recovery.
More VAR
Dundee have been unhappy with a number of decisions by VAR recently and Docherty hasn’t been slow to criticise the use of the technology.
Maybe, just maybe, that criticism paid off?
This time the Dark Blues were the beneficiaries of a contentious call with Saints the ones left feeling unjustly punished.
Again it was Liam Gordon, this time putting a hand in the face of Dundee attacker Amadou Bakayoko as a corner kick came into the area.
An incident where the attacker clearly feels like he’s fouled but the defender goes ‘who, me?’
These incidents often go unpunished as Craig Levein said – but does that mean it’s not a foul?
In the age of VAR, it probably is. Yet it still feels very harsh. The punishment is severe for a fairly minor infraction.
Referee Munro making up for the Mulligan red card earlier in the season, maybe.
Chances
On top of those two major incidents, there was a heck of a lot of good football played.
Dundee were on top for the majority of the contest, plenty of good play but without a cutting edge.
St Johnstone, meanwhile, were defending their box well and looking dangerous on the break with Adama Sidibeh and Benjamin Kimpioka pacey threats.
One look at the stats tells you what kind of game it was – just the 41 shots on goal and 20 corners between the teams!
The Dark Blues had 26 of those shots with six on target while Saints had 15, three on target.
Trevor Carson had to be at his best at times, Dimitar Mitov made some good stops, too, while both sides hit the woodwork.
More of this please.
Changes
The turnaround from Dundee after the disappointment at St Mirren speaks volumes for the mentality in this squad.
And Sunday showed it is a squad game with Tony Docherty making five changes to his starting XI and using four subs.
Bakayoko, Zach Robinson, Scott Tiffoney, Aaron Donnelly and Mo Sylla all came into the side.
There was also a change of system – the regular 3-5-2 line-up was ditched for a 4-4-2 in the first half which then changed to 4-3-3 in the second.
The back four led to a more open game with the concession of the opening goal coming from a bit of uncertainty at the back.
All things being equal, Docherty prefers the 3-5-2 set-up and we’ll probably see a return to that at some point.
However, there was a vibrancy about Dundee in the 4-3-3 with classic wingers on the flanks and a strong midfield three.
The manager switching to that formation with Dara Costelloe coming on at right wing was a key decision that helped swing the contest.
Returns for Donnelly, who was impressive, and a late cameo for Ricki Lamie were major positives, though.
Dundee have been missing three key defenders for a while now, including Antonio Portales, and results have suffered as a result.
A welcome sight to get more options back fit and available as the chase for the top six hots up.
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