Tony Docherty says he wasn’t surprised to see spectacular finishing from Antonio Portales against Motherwell on Saturday – even if one of the goals was taken away.
The Dark Blues were beaten 2-1 thanks to a late Tawanda Maswanhise header after leading 1-0.
Portales grabbed that opening goal, smashing an unstoppable volley into the top corner on 31 minutes.
And it appeared he had pulled a second rabbit out of the hat, this time with the other foot, only for VAR to spot an offside.
Post-match Docherty called the decision a “disgrace” and pointed to that as the moment where momentum swung away from his side.
Days after the fact, his opinion hasn’t differed.
“My stance on it is still exactly what it was on Saturday and I’m still as angry about it,” he said on Monday.
“It’s difficult, you’re trying for it not to affect the players, but our players were and you’ve seen the Motherwell players as well.
“My players were all stunned, everyone of them, to a man.
“It’s kind of human behaviour, it’s hard to take because we should have been going in comfortably at half-time.
“We should have been going in to cheers, instead of that the stadium turns to boos towards the referee.
“So the whole dynamic changes.”
‘Picking him up’
Docherty feels for Portales after seeing such a wonderful strike ruled out.
But insists it was not a surprise to see the Mexican prove so deadly.
“When we scouted him over in Mexico he scored a lot of goals,” Docherty added.
“He scored a lot of goals from set plays so he’s got that. I also see it regularly in training.
“He’s a good footballer and he showed that with his technique for both strikes.
“You’ve seen the reaction of the players when he scored the goal because he’s such a popular member of the squad.
“The whole stadium, everybody’s delighted for him, and that gets taken away from him.
“So it’s about picking him up a wee bit, because he thought he had scored two goals.
“The last three games, hopefully we’ll see him chip in with a few more.”
Right-back issues
Dundee have two injury issues to worry about ahead of the final week of the season, both in the same position.
Regular right-back option Jordan McGhee has been out with an Achilles problem since the defeat at Hibs last month.
And fellow right-back Ethan Ingram missed the weekend clash with Motherwell.
“Jordan is still nursing his Achilles. He’s still getting treatment along with Ethan Ingram at the moment,” Docherty said.
“Hopefully, they’ll be available for the weekend.
“We will see how the week progresses with them. They’re both worth the physios at the moment.
“Hopefully we’ll have a more accurate timescale by the end of the week.
“The rest of them were all in.”
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