News: Dundee Beat The Odds To Win Against Aberdeen

[TheDarkBlues]

David Clarkson’s golden scoring run continued at Dens Park to fire Dundee to Scottish Cup victory over strongly-fancied Aberdeen.

The red-hot striker’s eighth goal in his first eight games for the Dark Blues was his most dramatic to date.

It came as the clock ticked into injury time and earned his team a 2-1 victory when, for long spells, the best they could have been hoping for was a replay.

But credit to Clarkson and his team-mates because, on a rare day of late, when they were not the side playing the better football they found a way to win.

And, as well as that earning them a place in the fifth round, beating one of the bigger sides in the Premiership for the first time this season must surely provide a massive confidence boost.

For Clarkson, his goal took him to within one game and one goal of equalling Johnny Bell’s club record of scoring in nine consecutive games way back in 1920.

He’ll have the chance to do that when Inverness visit Dens this Saturday but, even if he doesn’t achieve it, he’s already proved a cracking signing by Paul Hartley.

And the quality of his finishing suggests there will be plenty more to come this term.

Goal No 8 was the kind of strike you’d expect from a man in his form. Collecting a lovely cushioned header from James McPake, he picked his spot and coolly rolled the ball past the advancing Scott Brown.

That sparked wild celebrations but, even with the game in injury time, the action was not quite over.

Aberdeen still had time to launch themselves forward and, when Niall McGinn found room for a shot, it took a quite remarkable stop from Scott Bain in the home goal and two bounces off the bar to keep Dundee ahead.

For Bain, that was the crowning moment of an immaculate display.

The first half had seen him make a fine stop from an Adam Rooney header and he did well late on to keep a Johnny Hayes free-kick out.

On top of that, the keeper’s all-round play was impressive as he came for and comfortably held a string of crosses into the danger area.

In front of him, Thomas Konrad and James McPake made fine contributions at both ends.

It was Konrad who headed the opener from an inch-perfect Gary Harkins free-kick in only the fourth minute.

The German was then credited with an own goal when a McGinn cross deflected off him and into the back of the net on 17 minutes.

For a spell after that, the visitors dominated but, by half-time, Dundee had created a couple of chances from which they might have retaken the lead.

In the second period, Aberdeen regained the initiative and that left them and manager Derek McInnes feeling they’d been desperately unlucky not to force a replay or even win this one.

Despite Bain’s saves and a couple of near misses, the truth is they didn’t do as much as they should have with their possession.

And, when you have a player like Clarkson who can’t miss right now, you don’t need a lot of chances to score enough goals to win.

That’s why it is the Dark Blues who are looking forward to being in the fifth-round draw.

Source: Evening Telegraph