Dundee 2 Hibernian 1

24th August 2002
Scottish Premier League
Attendance:

Scorers:
Hibernian: O'Connor.
Dundee: Caballero, Lovell.

This is a copy of a report of the game as it appeared in the Scotland on Sunday on Sunday 25th August 2002

Lovell Steals the Show

IT was a tale of twos at Dens yesterday as Dundee committed an act of grand larceny. Two signings, two late goals from the home team and the two sides of Hibernian. All of which added up to too much for Hibs manager Bobby Williamson, with his side having nothing but a duck egg where they expected a points total to be after four games of the new season.

Afterwards, Williamson looked like a man struggling to control an inner rage. "I’m fed up feeling hard done by," he lamented. "We’ve only got ourselves to blame as we’ve lost another game late on due to scrappy defending."

For Dundee, a first victory in seven league games was made all the more sweeter by the fact that it never looked on for 78 minutes. Trailing to a 10th-minute strike from Garry O’Connor, the home side were outplayed to the point of being toyed with by the Easter Road side in the first half.

Hibs appeared comfortable with their one-goal lead, and Jim Duffy’s side possessed little in the way of a threat until French defender Yannick Zambermardi’s debut turned sour in the most unfortunate manner 12 minutes from time. Attempting to boot the ball to safety inside Hibs’ six-yard area under pressure from Fabian Caballero, the powerful centre-back’s belt ricocheted off the Argentine and whizzed past the helpless Nick Colgan.

A winner still appeared beyond the Tayside club but, incredibly, this arrived as the encounter slid into injury-time. A corner swung in from Georgi Nemsadze was only half cleared by the Hibs defence. It dropped into the path of Steve Lovell - the 21-year-old signed from Portsmouth on Friday - who had replaced Barry Forbes in the 61st minute. He unleashed a mighty effort from 22 yards that practically lifted the net off its moorings.

Lovell dedicated the strike to his new manager, and was beaming at a "fairytale" coming true. "Never in my wildest dreams could I have envisaged scoring on my debut," said the striker, although he revealed that he also netted in his first outing for Portsmouth. "It is great to score on your debut because normally the fans like you after that."

Ill-deserved, certainly, but no more than the extensive bleating over the efforts of both Dundee manager Duffy and his Hibs counterpart Williamson by their own supporters. Going into yesterday game, Hibs had won only 14 of their past 58 league games. More than a third of these were with Williamson at the helm. The Edinburgh club’s problems long pre-date the former Kilmarnock manager.

Similarly, the Dundee faithful might care to remember that their team have not won three consecutive league games in more than two years. For the entirety of the Bonetti era, indeed.

The combatants at Dens yesterday could surely have empathised with one another. Hibs, in being pointless after three games and haemorrhaging goals at the alarming rate - nine conceded in their two games ahead of yesterday - were only marginally worse off than Dundee, above them in the league courtesy of a draw earned in their opening game.

Both teams had suffered 4-2 reverses last weekend which concluded with them down to 10 men after having a striker red-carded: Nacho Novo dismissed as Dundee lost to Dunfermline while Hibs’ Paco Luna was sent-off in the defeat by Rangers.

Luna’s suspension may have been a blessing in disguise for Williamson. In the week that O’Connor as much as admitted his partnership with the Spaniard was two individuals and no partnering, the 19-year-old showed how he could respond to being linked with a forward who would play for him in the interplay that brought the opening goal.

For at the heart of the scoring move was the redoubtable Mixu Paatelainen, the Fin nodding a ball floated in from Grant Brebner into the path of the teenager, who battered it past Julian Speroni from eight yards.

Soon after, Hibs took a stranglehold of the confrontation. They were helped with the disruption to the Dundee line-up forced by midfielder Gavin Beith leaving the field on a stretcher in the sixth minute after an accidental clash of heads with Zambernardi, which led to the introduction of the previously untried Neil Jablonski.

Beith required to be taken to hospital after being sick, but Duffy insisted the knock was not a serious concern. "He will not train this week but although it is nothing major, you have to be careful with injuries like this," the Dens manager stated.

Duffy played down the importance of his team’s first victory of the season, perhaps because it was not lost on him that Dundee were simply not at the races as the visitors passed them into circles early on. Had Derek Townsley made contact with a Tom McManus free-kick midway through the period, it seemed highly probable they would fold.

Williamson’s men demonstrated a sense of purpose at odds with their position at the foot of the Bank of Scotland Premierleague, though the contest was an untidy one with a rash of yellow cards.

In the early part of the second period, Hibs picked off where they had left off before the interval and, but for Speroni seeming to develop telescopic arms to turn a stinging drive from McManus round the post in the 50th minute, they would surely have slipped out of contention. Thereafter, though, Hibs inexplicably stopped playing and Dundee were given hope when Colgan was required to react smartly to block a snapshot from Caballero. The home side’s efforts did not appear as if they would amount to much, however, until the Argentine’s slice of good fortune which suggested the Fates had decided they would smile on Duffy’s men.

What Williamson has done to upset them so much is anyone’s guess, but it must have been a heck of a lot. If Hibs can lose a game in which they were so dominant, it must be wondered how they will ever rediscover the ability to win one.

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