December 8, 2022
The Scottish Challenge Cup is an unusual competition in that although it was initially run for sides in the Scottish Football League below their Premiership, since 2016/17 sides from other countries have been invited to participate. This year there were two sides from Northern Ireland ( Linfield and Cliftonville ) and two from Wales ( The New Saints and Caernafon Town ) who were invited.
In September, these diaries featured a last 32 encounter between Welsh side The New Saints and Scottish Championship side Dundee, which after a contrast in playing styles, Dundee ultimately ran-out as convincing 3-0 winners. Their reward was a last 16 tie at Scottish League One side Falkirk.
At the time of their match against TNS, Dundee had been struggling in the Championship after relegation from the SPL, and were in 5th place. Although they subsequently lost 1-3 at Cove Rangers, a side who had only won promotion to the Scottish Football League in 2018, since that reverse they had embarked on a run of 8 games unbeaten in the league, including winning their last 4 matches.
Dundee had narrowly exited the Scottish League Cup with a 0-1 reverse at Ibrox against Rangers, but eliminated Scottish League One side Airdrieonians 6-2 in the Scottish FA Cup, although the tie had been level at 2-2 after 90 minutes.
As a result of their improved form they had risen to 2nd in the table, one point behind leaders Ayr United, with a 9-4-4 record. Zach Robinson was their leading goal-scorer with 8 goals, followed by Paul McMullan on 5.
Falkirk, commonly known as The Bairns, have been in Scotland’s third tier since relegation in 2018/19, and went into today’s fixture in 3rd position, with an 8-5-4 record, behind Dunfermline Athletic and Edinburgh City. They now play in the all-seated 7,937 capacity Falkirk Stadium, which has an artificial grass surface and, like Oxford United’s Kassam Stadium, stands on only three sides on the ground. Until 2004 Falkirk had played at Brockville Stadium, with former Scottish football fanzine The Absolute Game once having a pun headline on REM’s “Don’t Go Back To Rockville” as “Don’t Go Back to Brockville”………….
Bet365.com made Dundee overwhelming favourites at 13/20, with Falkirk at 10/3 and the draw in 90 minutes at 13/5. The temperature at the 19.45 kick-off local time was minus 1 degree so credit to all the supporters who turned up to watch the match.
The match was live on BBC Alba, and also via the BBC website, with the main commentary in Gaelic, but the chatter with the pundit being in English. Tickets for the game were £15, with concessions at £10.
Dundee were playing in an Argentinian style light blue and white stripes shirt with black shorts, whilst Falkirk were in all dark blue.
Dundee were reported to have an illness in their camp, but nine of the players who featured in their victory over The New Saints were in their squad for tonight’s game. Falkirk had ex-Dundee, Wycombe Wanderers, St Mirren, Sheffield United and Watford midfielder Stephen McGinn in their starting line-up but Colombian striker Juan Alegira, on loan from Rangers, was on the bench, as was ex-Hearts winger Callum Morrison. Midfielder Aidan Nisbett had Celtic, Morton, Dundee United and MK Dons on his CV and Sean Mackie had a short loan spell at Dundee whilst at Hibernian.
Dundee quickly dashed any hopes of an upset by dominating the start of the game. In the 2nd minute Luke McCowan’s cross was athletically volleyed left footed onto the top of the bar by Zak Rudden, then the visitors were awarded a penalty in the 4th minute when McMullan went down close to the by-line after an unnecessary challenge by McCann. Although keeper Morrison got two hands to Rudden’s spot-kick, it had too much power, so it was 1-0 to the visitors.
Dundee’s dominance yielded a second goal in the 15th minute when a great low cross from McCowan from the left gave Rudden, ghosting in behind centre-back Mackie, a simple close-range finish. Dundee were two-up with 75 minutes to play, but it already felt as if the tie was over, especially when Falkirk’s McGuffie headed badly wide from 8 yards from a cross from Nesbitt.
Poor defending almost led to a third goal for Dundee in the 20th minute when Rudden couldn’t quite get to a weak header back to keeper Morrison, who saved bravely, after which another poor pass across the back four found Rudden, but again Morrison made another good save.
Dundee continued to out-class the home side, and another dangerous cross from the left from the impressive McCowan resulted in a mis-kick by Mackie in his own 6 yard box with the ball flying over the bar for a corner.
After an impressive opening half-hour from Dundee, they seemed to take the foot of the gas a little bit, as Falkirk slowly started to get into the match, and Burrell sent a low shot a few feet wide, but Dundee keeper Legzdins wasn’t unduly troubled.
With the game already slipping away from them, Falkirk made three changes at the interval but it was the visitors who came close to scoring the next goal shortly after the restart but Cameron's weak header was cleared off the line by McKay from which Grayson smashed the rebound well wide from just inside the area. Falkirk keeper Morrison then had to be alert to race outside of his area to clear Kerr’s defence splitting pass before Rudden could pounce.
In a rare foray, Falkirk substitute Oliver headed wide from a good position, but with the game in the bag, Dundee starting making their changes to further disrupt the pattern of the play. The Bairns did have a good chance 15 minutes from the end when Kennedy’s probing cross found McGinn but rather than head home the midfielder was distracted by a slight deflection off Dundee’s Sweeney, and the ball hit McGinn on the arm and chest.
The visitors eventually grabbed a third goal to kill off the tie in the 77th minute. Mulligan made a surging run down the right wing, and his ball across the edge of the penalty area was laid back by Jakubiak for Robertson to strike a left footed curler into the bottom corner from the penalty circle. Mulligan then made another penetrative run to set-up McCowan but his shot was straight at the keeper.
Commendably Falkirk didn’t roll-over and strove for a consolation goal. They could have had a penalty when Alegria appeared to be pushed in the back by French but the referee ignored their appeals. Alegria then couldn’t make a decent contact to a right wing cross from McGinn, then with three minutes remaining, Dundee keeper Legzdins made a good save to deny substitute Callum Morrison after a loose pass across the face of the penalty box. Alegria then released Callum Morrison on the left-hand side of the area but the ex-Hearts man could only shoot into the side-netting.
The final chance fell to Dundee though, with Jakubiak running down the left from close to half-way but his attempt to place the ball into the far corner hit the leg of Mackie and bounced to safety.
Overall, this was a comfortable victory for Dundee, who, without being too disrespectful to Falkirk, rarely had to break sweat on their way onto the last eight. On this showing they look a good bet to win the competition, with the quarter-finals due to be played in the second week in January.
Falkirk : R.Morrison – McKay, Mackie, Donaldson, McCann -– McGuffie ( C. Morrison ), McGinn, Hetherington ( Oliver ) Kennedy – Nesbitt ( Lawal ), Burrell ( Alegria )
Dundee FC : Legzdins – French, Ashcroft, Sweeney, Kerr – Robertson, McMullan ( Mulligan ), Grayson ( Osei ), McCowan ( Sheridan ) – Cameron ( Anderson ), Rudden ( Jakubiak )
Highlights : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OspGXolYuI
Good summary, and glad you have adopted the Dees as your Scottish side. You are welcome at Dens Park anytime.
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed reading that, thanks. Small thing though - Dundee beat League One Airdrie 6-2 in the Scottish Cup rather than Hamilton.
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