Dundee boss James McPake still may struggle to sleep as serious injury concern to striker revealed
After running his Wednesday nightmare over in his mind seeking an immediate response to a 5-0 home defeat to Ross County on Wednesday, it came via Max Anderson’s first-half strike.
Now, he has less cause to worry with three points restoring their four-point cushion over the bottom side – and an impressive, controlled display in light of their midweek malaise.
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Hide Ad“I stayed up in Broughty Ferry the other night” the manager explained. “I’m back home now with a two-year-old so it might be another sleepless night but I won’t be bothered being awake after that.
"Off the back of the other night it was a massive display. The players deserve the credit because this is a tough place to come and they showed attitude and desire. I’m so happy for them. They deserve it."We hurt as coaches. We can say it’s for the fans but this is for the players because they’ve hurt as much as anyone. They had to play on Wednesday then turn up and put on a performance like that."They were down and they were on their knees but when everyone was rightly criticising us they can now stand and be tall.”
What might yet keep the Dundee manager up is an injury to striker Cillian Sheridan. After leading the line for an hour he was stretchered off having gone down without a challenge and McPake fears for his striker.
"We think Cillian’s ruptured his Achilles which would be a real shame because he was excellent.
“He caused problems and we had joy getting down the sides of their back three with Cillian just willing to run, to do the hard yards.
“We’ve seen them before, it’s a sore one and I’m gutted for him because you could see the threat he was causing and he was getting fitter.”
Saints boss Jim Goodwin added: “The stats will line up in our favour but the one that matters is the scoreline. We shouldn’t be conceding from our corner and we didn’t create enough clear-cut opportunities.”