A much-changed Motherwell collapsed to a 4-1 defeat Dens Park on Wednesday as they succumbed to a third successive defeat despite producing an initially solid performance.
The decisive goal on the hour was unfortunate as Kofi Balmer claimed a foul in the Dundee box and the hosts broke into his vacant position for Scott Tiffoney to finish. Any hopes of a comeback were ended immediately when Lyall Cameron's shot took a wicked deflection into the net before Balmer was robbed by Simon Murray to set up Cameron's second.
A strong start from Motherwell had gone unrewarded and Oluwaseun Adewumi netted a 14th minute opener for the hosts against the run of play. Apostolos Stamatelopoulos levelled at the second attempt five minutes later and the game remained in the balance until Dundee made the most of a couple of breaks which fell their way.
The result means Motherwell drop to sixth and the nature of the collapse is certain to bring criticism. But the reality is this was a vastly improved performance for almost an hour before we contrived to somehow give it away.
After two dismal defeats, manager Stuart Kettlewell made four changes to his team with Steve Seddon, Jair Tavares, Tony Watt and Harry Paton replacing Marvin Kaleta, Tawanda Maswanhise, Andy Halliday and Davor Zdravkovski.
The more attack-minded line-up produced immediate threats with Lennon Miller twice going off-target from distance, the second in particular causing home keeper Jon McCracken concern. Watt had a shot blocked before defensive failings were punished once again at the other end.
Tackles were missed on the right hand side to allow Scott Tiffoney space and he fed Adewumi, who curled a powerful shot beyond Aston Oxborough.
Heads might have dropped at this point but didn't and a lovely pass from Tavares found Paton behind the Dundee defence. He appeared to be fouled but Stamatelopoulos collected the loose ball and though his first shot was saved by McCracken, he forced the rebound over the line.
The Aussie had another effort well saved, though a better pass from Paton may have sent him through, but Motherwell were also living dangerously at the back. Dundee pressed towards the end of the half and Murray, inexplicably given the freedom of the back post, had his shot saved by Oxborough and the rebound ricocheted over the bar.
A scrappy start to the second half followed and brilliant work from Watt on the wing set up Paton, who could only fire wide from in front of the near post as the hour mark approached.
But in the 60th minute it was Dundee who regained the lead with a fine break. Balmer claimed to have been fouled at a corner and as he lay prone the hosts raced to the other end for Tiffoney to turn inside his man and score.
Protests were to no avail and matters went from bad to worse for Motherwell as playing out from the back went wrong. Dundee forced the ball to Cameron and his innocuous shot took a huge deflection to beat Oxborough and seal the points.
Balmer's miserable evening was completed when he let Murray rob him out wide and Cameron this time found the net of his own accord.
We head to St Mirren on Saturday knowing another loss will see us drop to seventh. Better is needed.
Dundee 4 Motherwell 1
Attendance
Team: Oxborough, Balmer, Casey, Gordon, Tavares (Halliday 69), Paton (Kaleta 69), Wilson, Seddon, Miller, Watt (Maswanhise 74), Stamatelopoulos (Ebiye 69)
Wednesday 4 December 2024