St Mirren snatched defeat from the jaws of victory at Tannadice yesterday as the Terrors completed a sensational comeback to take all three points with virtually the last kick of the ball.
Ok, hands up, we probably didn't deserve anything from the game, let alone the win. For 79 minutes we were utterly terrible and barely did anything in the game. They in truth bossed the game and had more determination and a greater will to win than we did. As a team we looked disjointed, particularly in defence where they seemed to be playing as individuals rather than as a unit. We can probably use the conditions as a mitigating factor as it was extremely blustery but then it was the same for them too.
I thought their front two were pretty good too. Big Thompson was always a nuisance and I thought McGinn was probably their man of the match and caused us loads of problems running from deep beyond Thompson.
What changed the game for us was the substitutions and the fact that we went to Plan B. As I said, the conditions didn't lend themselves to passing football and we didn't do any throughout. So we sent on the cavalry and big Graham caused them all sorts of problems and went on to get the first one back. It might have been a smidge offside in the build up though.
Once we got the goal back the whole nature of the game changed and it became almost like a cup tie. We surged forward, they panicked and we were rewarded with a second, a GMS cross breaking to Armstrong (another sub) and a lovely finish into the top corner. And still the game stayed like a cup tie as we searched for the winner, over committing going forward and we were rewarded when sub Ryan Dow (not Andy Dow, the former Dundee player like the Scotsman says this morning) broke down the right and had a dig at goal that Kello should have held but didn't, and that man Ciftci was there to score his 13th goal of the season.
OOOOHHHH NADIIIIR CIFTCIIIIII
Great comeback, great character and an important three points. If we had been on the end of two home defeats in a week I'd worry that we'd have gone on another poor run. As it is hopefully this win will lift the boys when going to Gorgie on Friday night and we get another important three points to keep our European hopes alive.
DUFC 3 SMFC 2
posted on 16/3/14
When you're on a roll you're on a roll.
Here's hoping IF you get European football the luck stays with you and you do better than you have of late...For ALL our sakes.
posted on 16/3/14
Yeah the game fell into the daylight robbery category I think. Slightly worrying that for most of the match they looked more up for it than us, hopefully they get this sorted before Friday's match against Hearts.
Thought Rado had an absolute stinker, I wish there was a bit more competition for his place in the team.
Still, we'll take it - big three points and really exciting for the last eleven minutes!
posted on 16/3/14
Çiftçi getting man of the match was brilliant. I can only imagine the abuse Graham would have got had he played that badly.
Great comeback though. St. Mirren pressed us brilliantly for 70 minutes, fell apart for 10 minutes then completely disappeared for the final 10.
If the stats are to be believed, we had 3 shots for the first 77 minutes & 13 in the last 13 minutes. Not many teams will survive that sort of onslaught.
posted on 16/3/14
Me and my old man just looked at each other and laughed when Ciftci was announced as MOTM. To be fair there weren't too many candidates. Maybe the sponsors knew the winning goal was coming.
posted on 16/3/14
Yeah it was hard to pick one out to be honest, I thought they would maybe just not award it, like you say though Ivan perhaps the sponsors are more prophetic than we give them credit for.
posted on 16/3/14
Dow probably wasn't far off MotM come the final whistle. St. Mirren defenders did not like someone running at them. Rankin also suddenly came alive at that point, but was awful up until Paton came off.
Robertson was probably the best performer over the 90, by virtue that he wasn't completely horrible & had absolutely no help from Çiftçi.
posted on 16/3/14
Yeah I'd maybe go for Robertson. The rest of the defence was awful thoughout.
Paton was on twitter last night saying that his best contribution to the game was getting subbed off.
You've got to credit Jackie though. All his subs made big contributions to the game and turned it around for us. Must be really pleasing when that happens for a manager.