East Stirlingshire 0 THE dark cloud that hangs over Dens Park lightened a little yesterday as Dundee began life outside of the SPL with a comfortable victory over lowly East Stirlingshire in the first round of the Bell's Cup.
Dundee ma
nager Jim Duffy would, of course, rather have been leading his charges at Ibrox, where Livingston started the new SPL season after a summer of uncertainty eventually ended with Scotland's football courts rejecting the Taysiders' bid to have Paul Lambert's side relegated to the First Division in their place as a result of the Hassan Kachloul affair.
As if to rub salt into the wounds of those at Dens, this tie was shunted to Sunday afternoon to accommodate Dundee United's top-flight fixture against Aberdeen in the city 24 hours earlier.
It is not to overstate the point to say that promotion back into the SPL is all that matters for Dundee this season: the implications of failure do not bear thinking about for those with the club's best interests at heart and bank balance in mind.
The cup's sponsors, Bell's, should not be too offended when faced with the fact that their competition hardly ranks as a priority for the tournament's star attraction.
At least yesterday's success will have lifted confidence among Duffy's squad and perhaps even enthusiasm for the new campaign within the home support.
Dundee have undoubtedly slipped over the past few seasons and the days of Claudio Caniggia and European nights at Dens are now in the distant past. They are on familiar territory, however, having won this competition in 1990-91, when it was known as the B&Q Centenary Cup.
Even in their present plight, Dundee's standards have not dropped so low that the likes of East Stirlingshire, the Third Division's bottom side last season, cannot be disposed of with ease.
Dundee winger Steven Robb posted a note of what was to come in a first half entirely dominated by the hosts with a surging run in the second minute which concluded with a low cross and Tam McManus sending a close range flick into the hands of visiting goalkeeper Derek Jackson.
McManus was denied by Jackson again and his strike partner Simon Lynch then waited too long to pull the trigger when through on goal.
Finally the pressure told, though, as Iain Anderson ghosted into the penalty box unnoticed after 25 minutes and diverted Paul Dixon's long throw into the Shire net with a glancing header.
Lynch put the contest beyond doubt on the half hour mark firing into an empty goal after Jackson blocked his first attempt.
The match took on the air of a bounce game after the break and Dundee keeper Kelvin Jack maybe deliberately tried to enliven proceedings by tipping Shire midfielder Andrew Brand's long-range shot on to a post when only a routine save was required.
McManus, Lynch and Scott Robertson were all guilty of missing clear opportunities at the other end.
Winning this tie at a canter provides little evidence of how Dundee will fare in the First Division.
Duffy certainly feels his side has a lot more to offer and suggested too many players left too much in their tanks in the second half.
Attendance: 2,554
Dundee: Jack, Smith, Dixon, Brady (Swankie, 72), Mann, Madaschi, Anderson, Robertson, Lynch (Ferguson, 80), McManus, Robb. Subs not used: Murray, Hutchinson, Britton.
East Stirlingshire: Jackson, McKay, Livingstone, M Tyrell, Gaughan, K Tyrell (Blair, 55), Brand (Dymock, 72), Thywissen, Dyak, Graham, Ure (Gordon, 80). Subs not used: Gillespie, Oates.
Referee: I Fyffe.
The full article contains 616 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
