Wallace finds win hard to believe

17 Apr 1989

Dundee 2, Hearts 1

DUNDEE manager Gordon Wallace was as bemused as all the other onlookers at Dens Park when his team emerged triumphant for the first time this season against a Hearts side who, almost embarrassingly, had been superior to their east coast rivals from start to finish.

"We really didn't play at all.

In fact, it probably was the worst performance since I took over as manager two months ago," he said.

It seems that there are some days when even victory is hard to accept.

It was the third successive occasion that the dark blues had given their opposition a goal of a start, and had fought back to win.

This alarming habit had Wallace commenting: "You could say that our battling qualities speak volumes for the players' character, but they have to realise that there's more to the game than just showing determination."

For Hearts, this defeat surely means an end to the push for a return to the European arena they graced this season.

Frankly, they have only themselves to blame, with Dave McPherson's headed opener after 19 minutes all they had to show for incessant pressure.

The Tynecastle men should have enhanced their goal difference by quite a margin as maroon-shirted players queued to take shots at goal in the absence of anything that remotely resembled a Dundee midfield.

After being on the receiving end for most of the afternoon, the hosts surprisingly levelled the game with 18 minutes remaining as the former Easter Road connection of Graham Harvey and Gordon Chisholm unlocked the Hearts back door, with Chisholm effectively drilling home his fourth goal of the season.

The experienced Harvey, a second half substitute for teenager Duncan Campbell, proved his worth with another telling intervention to initiate the decisive attack three minutes from the end which culminated in Keith Wright deftly diverting a Stuart Rafferty volley high into the net for his first goal in three months.

Wright admitted afterwards: "Not scoring was concerning me, but perhaps it was understandable after the end of such a good partnership with Tommy Coyne.

People were wondering if I could score now that I'm on my own.

Perhaps that will answer them."

By the time Wright was applying the finishing blow, Hearts manager Alex MacDonald had been ejected from his customary position in the dugout to a seat in the stand following a touchline confrontation with match refereee Gerry Evans.

DUNDEE -- Carson, McGeachie, Shannon, Holt, Chisholm, Forsyth, Rafferty, Angus, Wright, Campbell, McBride.

Substitutes -- Frail, Harvey.

HEARTS -- Smith, Kidd, McKinlay, McPherson, Berry, Sandison, Galloway, Bannon, Ferguson, Black, Colquhoun.

Substitutes -- Robertson and Jardine.

Referee -- G Evans (Bishopbriggs).

Taken from the Herald