Dundee

Tyrone Smith
BBC Sport Scotland Senior Reporter

Dundee must still be wondering how, after finding themselves 2-0 up after just five minutes, they had to settle for a draw against Livingston at Dens Park.

But with the dust having settled on that, perhaps of more significance than the result was the return to scoring form of talismanic striker Simon Murray.

One of the country's most prolific frontmen in recent seasons, the 33-year-old has found goals hard to come by this term.

Last season he netted 15 goals in 33 Premiership games and the season before he scored 11 in 32 league outings.

His weekend double represented his first since the end of September and his third goal in the league after 21 games.

Speaking after the game Murray even acknowledged how good it was to get that monkey off his back.

The Dark Blues fans, and head coach Steven Pressley, will be hoping that the shackles are now off and that Murray can now go on a hot streak of scoring form – he is certainly capable of it.

If he does, it could turn their season around.

Performances have been good in recent times, but that cutting edge has been lacking – something illustrated by the fact that ninth placed Dundee are the joint lowest scorers (with St Mirren) in the Premiership having netted just 21 goals in their 26 league games.

An in form Simon Murray would go some way to sharpening an often blunt attack over the remaining weeks and months of the campaign.

Image source, BBC Sport

Rangers have stepped up their interest in Dundee defender Luke Graham (Scottish Sun), external.

Dundee manager Steven Pressley has backed goalkeeper Jon McCracken to bounce back from his mistake against Livingston (Courier), external.

Ethan Hampton
Fan writer

There was little love at Dens Park this Valentine's Day — and here's why.

We've been playing well without putting wins on the board. The question now is simple: how long can you sustain performances without results before confidence begins to erode?

That question lands heavier after Saturday. Two-nil up after five minutes at home to the bottom side — winless in 25 league games — and we sleepwalked into a draw.

What should have been a comfortable lead to manage and use to frustrate Livingston instead descended into something chaotic. From the moment they pulled one back, we never looked likely to regain control.

Dundee need to shake themselves out of this trance. The flashes of casual defending and sluggish play in the final third were visible against Falkirk, but after this, it starts to feel like the beginning of a slippery slope — and it needs addressed quickly.

In a season where we've broken long-standing records and droughts, I'm clinging to the idea that we can do it again. Aberdeen at Pittodrie has long felt cursed — the last time Dundee left the Granite City with three points, Facebook was barely two weeks old.

The silver lining? Simon Murray looks sharp again. After a turbulent, stop-start season with injuries, he's rediscovering his edge. Give him the service and he'll deliver.

Two Celtic stars, duos from Dundee and Dundee United, and a pair from Motherwell. It's time for Jonathan Sutherland's team of the week, so let's take a look and see who impressed...

Raphael Sallinger - Hibernian

Not a vintage weekend for goalkeepers. Sallinger gets the nod for a couple of stops and a clean sheet. An overall impressive addition at Easter Road.

Julian Araujo - Celtic

What a big goal. Ended up in hospitality with his celebration, but it was a big moment.

Stephen Welsh - Motherwell

Outstanding again after his goalscoring heroics midweek. An assist for Just as well. Not sure what Celtic don't see in him.

Ross Graham - Dundee United

Goal and a doughty warrior at the back. His four touches in the opposition box was only bettered by teammate Kristijan Trapanovski, while he made more clearances than any other player.

Cameron Congreve - Dundee

A continuous threat down the right for the Dark Blues. What a good loan signing he has been by Steven Pressley. Took eight shots and created three chances.

Craig Sibbald - Dundee United

Pulled the strings in midfield and scored a vital goal. Set up four chances, the most of any United player, and won more duels than any of his teammates.

Elijah Just - Motherwell

For me, Elijah Just has to be in with a shout of player of the season. The New Zealand international has been consistently excellent, showing guile, creativity and goalscoring ability. On the scoresheet again this weekend, against Aberdeen. Ghosts around the pitch with elegance, class and endeavour.

Sebastian Tounekti - Celtic

Loves Rugby Park. Great on his debut there, scored there against Auchinleck Talbot and sparked Celtic's comeback on Sunday with a goal of the season contender.

Simon Murray - Dundee

Murray in a hurry at Dens Park. After a barren spell, the Dundee captain looked pumped for action with his quick fire double.

Youssef Chermiti - Rangers

Michael Stewart told me on Sportscene he doesn't think Chermiti has the potential to be a top striker. But he has scored six of his seven goals this season against Celtic and Hearts, including his hat-trick yesterday on what was a huge occasion.

The challenge for the 21-year-old is to start delivering this sort of performance more consistently against the other sides in the Premiership.

Tyreece John-Jules - Kilmarnock

The former Arsenal youth - and nephew of Red Dwarf star Danny John-Jules - was a force of nature for Kilmarnock against Celtic, following on from his midweek hat-trick.

Scored a great goal, clipped the crossbar from a free-kick and just generally showed star potential. Such a shame he limped off with what looked like a thigh muscle strain.

Watch highlights as Dundee and Livingston share four goals in the Scottish Premiership (UK users only).

We sought your views after Dundee's 2-2 draw with Livingston...

Danny: We are capable of playing some very good football but lack physicality in midfield and are too easy to play against. We also need to adopt a better mentality both in and out of possession, with McCracken's mistake being a prime example of a need for better concentration.

Darren: Need a reliable goalkeeper. Jon McCracken has too many mistakes in him. This has been the case since joining.

Lammy: Poor result but not disastrous. Two extremely bad goals to lose (again). The second goal was the type lost by many teams trying to play out of the back instead of clearing it up the park. At least Murray is back scoring, let's hope he continues. Did we deliberately stop using Congreve in the second half? Certainly seemed like it. The joys of being a Dee!

Albert: A bit disappointed after the great start on a beautiful day for football. At least we've some daylight between ourselves and Livingston. Glad for Murray to get amongst the goals again.

Iain: It's games like this that make you want to tear your hair out. 2-0 up at home against the bottom side and we end with a draw?? It's unacceptable. Livi are very likely to be relegated, and we can't force a 2-0 advantage. Really shocking.

Mark: Simply not good enough. Both goals totally avoidable. The good run we were on simply papering over the cracks.

Tyrone Smith
BBC Sport Scotland Senior Reporter

Image source, SNS

Dundee striker Simon Murray says he hopes to kick on after getting "that monkey off the back" by scoring both his side's goals in Saturday's 2-2 draw with Livingston.

The 33-year-old has been one of the country's most prolific scorers in recent seasons, but his early double represented his first goals since September.

"It has been a really frustrating season for myself in terms of goals and a few niggling injuries, but it sometimes happens," he said. "You just need to keep plugging away and I am glad to get a couple of goals today.

"It is nice to get that monkey off the back and just kick on now."

Dundee, who are ninth in the Scottish Premiership, have struggled for goals this season and Murray admits "we probably shot ourselves in the foot" by squandering their early two-goal advantage against the bottom-placed visitors.

The Dark Blues missed a chance to oust Celtic in the Scottish Cup last weekend thanks to two late goals for the hosts last weekend then went down to a single goal in Falkirk in midweek.

"It has been a tough week, a disappointing week in terms of we put in a lot and maybe never got out what we maybe deserved, but sometimes that is football we just need to move on to next week," Murray added.

"We have been working really hard to get that final cutting edge, but in terms of defensively, it wasn't necessarily we were really bad defensively we maybe just gave the ball away in areas which left ourselves open at times."

Celtic and Rangers are both eyeing respective summer moves for highly-rated 22-year-old Dundee centre-half Luke Graham. (Football Insider), external

Read Sunday's Scottish Gossip in full.

Image source, SNS

Simon Murray's early double wasn't enough to earn Dundee a first win in five games as bottom club Livingston fought back to salvage a point in their desperate fight for Scottish Premiership survival.

Read the match report here.

Let us know your thoughts here.

Image source, SNS

Dundee manager Steven Pressley tells BBC Sportsound: "We obviously started the game exceptionally well but even after scoring the two goals I never felt entirely comfortable.

"We looked really fatigued today. We've had a really tough week and I went with the same players on three occasions. Maybe in hindsight that's an error on my part because they've done so well but we looked tired in some of our decision-making.

"We weren't as aggressive against the ball either, again because I think we looked tired.

"Defending has been a part of the game we've prided ourselves on but it was fatigue. And sometimes fatigue isn't just in the legs but in our focus and thinking today.

"It's a huge battle [to get free of relegation trouble] for us even though performances and results have improved in recent months. I'm the first to hammer home that we are far from safe. Teams like Livingston are fighting for their lives.

"It's going to be a real tough challenge and we have to keep focused and believing. Hopefully we'll get the points that cement our safety."

Image source, SNS

Dundee remain without centre-backs Billy Koumetio (knee) and Clark Robertson (thigh) plus forwards Joe Westley (ankle) and Ashley Hay (broken toe).

Livingston will be without Babacar Fati (thigh) and possibly Samson Lawal after their late withdrawals against Celtic.

Scott Arfield (hamstring) and Connor McLennan (ankle) were also missing in midweek along with Aidan Denholm (hamstring).

Image source, SNS

Steven Pressley wants his Dundee side to find a "killer mindset" when they host bottom-of-the-table Livingston on Saturday.

Tenth-placed Dundee fell to a 1-0 defeat against Falkirk on Wednesday which keeps them 12 points above Livi and three clear of Kilmarnock, having played a game more than the bottom two.

Pressley has been impressed with his side's performances but wants to address the issue of being the league's lowest scorers with just 19 goals from 25 fixtures.

"Our performance on Wednesday night is very typical of some of the performances of late where we did so many good things," said Pressley.

"We dominated big parts of the game, but we just lack that final moment, that final detail, and we need to see a little shift in the mindset.

"We need to find that 5%, that killer mindset in the box because we're getting into some great areas, great opportunities, but we have to find out an outcome, which is vitally important to ourselves moving forward.

"The one thing I would say is that it's going to be a really difficult game. In the two previous encounters, there's been very little between the sides. So I don't anticipate it being any different.

"They've obviously got a new manager in place, and it was very evident against Celtic on Wednesday night, you could see a lot of principles that Marvin Bartley is putting in place.

"He's had time on the training ground with no game at the weekend. So we expect a really tough challenge. They were very aggressive in many aspects of their play against Celtic.

"They were close to achieving a lot of good results during the previous manager, but I've seen a difference in certain aspects of their play, from Marvin on Wednesday night that I hadn't seen before."

Image source, SNS

• Dundee (240) and Livingston (245) are the two sides to have had the fewest shots in the Scottish Premiership this season, while they are both in the top four for shots faced (Dundee 392, Livingston 379).

• Livingston have lost their past four league games, last losing five in a row in the Premiership in December 2023 (seven).

• Dundee have failed to score in four league matches, but haven't done so in five successive top-flight games since February 2013.

• Livingston have lost four of their past five Premiership games against Dundee (D1), as many as their previous 15 in the top flight beforehand (W6 D5 L4).

• Dundee have won their two home league games against newly-promoted sides Falkirk and Livingston this season; they had only won two of their previous 16 top-flight home matches against promoted opponents before this (D5 L9).

We asked for your views after Falkirk's 1-0 win over Dundee in which Steven Pressley's side missed a late penalty.

Here's what some of you had to say:

Flynn: We seem to be really struggling without Ashley Hay. Simon Murray has been nowhere near good enough for his standards. We controlled the game for most of it and deserved at least a point. Yan Dhanda misses the penalty but all the blame can't go on him, we shouldn't be relying on a penalty at the end of the game after dominating. Huge game on Saturday against Livingston, especially with teams around us playing tough opponents.

Gary: Too predictable, too slow to make subs and when we do they offer little as they're usually like for like. We need to do something different with the personnel we've got or we'll continue to be as far away from "safe" as Steven Pressley states. He's got to have the answer to this tricky time just now while we await injury returns.

Brian: We were poor in the final third, how many times in there did we pass to the opposition? Far too many. After a stellar performance last Saturday to this poor distribution and lack of penetration. Pressley was right, we are not out of this relegation battle, hopefully Saturday brings a win and a better performance.

Albert: A spirited performance again by Pressley's men. Just lacking goals as we're playing fantastic football. Dust ourselves down and onwards to the next match.

Watch all the highlights as Falkirk scraped a 1-0 win over Dundee as the visitors missed a late penalty. Available to UK users only

Ben Broggio's first Falkirk goal propelled the dogged hosts past Dundee and level on points with fifth-placed Hibernian in the Scottish Premiership.

Read the match report here.

Let us know your thoughts here.

Image source, SNS

Dundee manager Steven Pressley tells BBC Scotland: "Considering the conditions, the players attitude towards the game was amazing. We controlled long periods, found ourselves in really good areas, but it's been the story of late - we just need to find that final action.

"We had the penalty in the final minute but no criticism of Yan Dhanda - he's been an outstanding performer and gives so much to the team.

"The truth is, we've never thought we are out of this [relegation fight]. I've reminded the players constantly we have got so much hard work ahead of us.

"We have to get the end product which is the only thing missing from our performance."

Image source, SNS

• Both league matches between Falkirk and Dundee this season have been home wins, with the Bairns notching their first victory of the campaign by beating Steven Pressley's side 2-1 in October.

• Dundee have won three of their past five Scottish Premiership games against newly-promoted opponents (D1 L1), as many as their previous 16 beforehand (W3 D5 L8).

• Falkirk have won five of their past eight league games (L3), as many as their first 17 of the season beforehand (W5 D6 L6).

• Only Livingston (zero) have fewer away wins in the Premiership this season than Dundee (one), who have scored just five goals on the road this term, the fewest of any side.

• Dundee's Ethan Hamilton has had more shots without scoring than any player in the Scottish Premiership this season (38). Thirty of those shots have been from outside the box, with his expected goals tally at just 1.42 (0.037 xG per shot).

Image source, SNS

Dundee may have a 12-point gap over bottom club Livingston, but Steven Pressley is adamant his side side still have plenty to prove and are "far" from safety.

Largely written off at the start of the season due to a dismal League Cup campaign and two wins from 10 games in the league, Pressley has won critics over with a few big scalps and brave performances.

But the boss himself thinks his side still have some way to go.

Pressley, whose side visit high-flying Falkirk on Wednesday night, said: "People are saying to me, you'll be fine. No, we're not fine. Far, far from it.

"We have to prove to ourselves, first and foremost, that we should be a Premiership club next season. That's the challenge for us, but we haven't proved that yet.

"Although people have talked of late improvements in us and in our performances, the season isn't over a three-month period. It's over the entirety of the season.

"We still have to prove to ourselves that we are worthy of staying in the Premiership, and that starts again tomorrow with a really, really tough fixture against a club I have a lot of admiration for because they're doing a lot of things right.

"They've got stability around the squad, they have stability around the manager [John McGlynn].

"They've been together now for best part of four years, and in that time they've had tremendous growth as a team and as individuals, and they have a real trust in how they do things.

"So when you look at results in the last eight, they've only lost twice and that's been to Celtic.

"But within that, they've won at Tynecastle, they've beaten Hibernian at home, they've beaten St Mirren away, they've beaten Aberdeen.

"So their form is really impressive. So, make no mistake, it's going to take another effort like we had on Saturday to have any chance of getting anything from this game."

Image source, SNS

Falkirk midfielder Brad Spencer (ankle) is a doubt and Kyrell Wilson (calf) drops out but Liam Henderson will be available after recovering from a calf injury.

Ben Parkinson (ankle) and Ethan Williams (thigh) remain out.

Dundee could hand a debut to Lewis Montsma. They remain without centre-backs Billy Koumetio (knee) and Clark Robertson (thigh) plus forwards Joe Westley (ankle) and Ashley Hay (broken toe).

Ethan Hampton
Fan writer

It's the hope that kills you and the reality buries you into the ground.

We're left with a combination of feeling immensely proud and sickeningly distraught after being a mere moment from making history at Celtic Park before the result was snatched away with the last kick.

Over the 90 minutes we did 9.9/10 things right. Unfortunately in these kind of games you're fighting an uphill battle for the full duration and always require an element of fortune to see out results.

We can hold our heads high not just from Saturday but from every performance in Glasgow this season. We've developed a mentality of going there without fear and long may that continue.

I think Dundee captured a lot of hearts at the weekend. They gave it everything and deserved to be on the winning side of that Scottish Cup tie.

At our current trajectory, we're a team that are growing stronger. The new signings all look promising and complement the nucleus of our young team.

Dundee have the youngest team in the division with an average age of 24.6 - at this stage of the 'rebuild' things look encouraging for the long term.

In the meantime, we just need to win as many games as possible and see how high we can finish.

A top-six spot is very likely to be out of our grasp. Still, crazier things have happened in Scottish football. If the Celtic game teaches any lesson it's that the result is never final before that last whistle blows.

We asked for your thoughts after Dundee were beaten in extra-time by Celtic to end their Scottish Cup campaign.

Here's what some of you had to say:

Innes: A great team effort from the Dee. No criticism from me. If we can perform to that standard going forward we will be looking down at five other teams. Well done Dundee.

Alex: Outstanding performance from Dundee, deserved to go through into the hat for the next round but a dodgy decision from the referee cost us the game. Players were phenomenal, Steven Pressley again proving the performances would come. Pressley has definitely won all of the fans over and if we can continue to play like this, the future looks bright.

John: Fabulous team effort. We were really unlucky not to have gone through 1-0. Losing a goal in the dying seconds was heart-wrenching. I do think we got away with a penalty claim though, albeit VAR cleared it on a technicality. I don't think we could complain if Celtic got that penalty. Overall the wrong team went through to quarter-finals.

George: Congratulations to Dundee they played very well. If only the first Celtic goal had not gone in. Keep this up to the end of the season and we should be safe. Now pick yourselves up and beat Falkirk this week

Albert: Best performance from Dundee in over 20 years. So unfortunate to not get over the line. I feel sorry for our fabulous manager. Moving in the right direction finally which is very pleasing

Gary: Gutted. A goal worthy of winning any game, a captain's performance and one full of effort by the whole team. It took added on, added on, added on, time to undo us but their subs told in the end. Really thought we had it there, but that kind of endeavour can see us good going forward.