Dens joy as video star Lockwood comes up with another winner

By MOIRA GORDON
Published on Monday 5 November 2012 00:27

COLIN Nish was gutted he didn’t find the net as Dundee inflicted defeat on Hearts for the second time this season but the former Hibs striker was also relieved he didn’t try to hijack the free-kick which gave them the decisive goal.

There had been appeals for a penalty when Marius Zaliukas lunged in at the edge of the box in the 22nd minute but even Nish conceded that would have been unfair. “I didn’t think it was to be honest, but I’m not sure. I’m not fussed, though. I’m glad it was a free kick because I drive up with Matty [Lockwood] every day and he said I should see his You Tube video. So I went on and he’s scored about 70 goals!

“I couldn’t believe it. I was sitting there for ages watching free-kick after free-kick and although I was going to try to take that one, I’m glad I didn’t and I wasn’t surprised when it went in.”

It was the left-back’s first goal of the season, the club’s fifth in the SPL, but there was little chance of Hearts keeper Jamie MacDonald stopping it, such was the precision placement of the set piece.

This was only the second victory of the campaign for the Dens Park side and both have been against Hearts. The first back in September was down to good luck, outstanding goalkeeping and more than a sliver of good fortune, but on Saturday they merited every one of the three points they garnered from the game and will be wishing that 
they could play John McGlynn’s men every week.

While that hope is a forlorn one, Nish believes that the result and the 
performance on Saturday will give the Tayside outfit the belief that they can also trouble teams outwith Gorgie.

“I think we deserved it to be honest. I know they had a couple of half chances towards the end, but we had a few as well and we could have scored more.

“It would have been nice to go two up and maybe enjoy it a bit more but we would have taken that before the game and we just need to build on it now. 
The boys are delighted in there and 
we will be coming in to training with a different feeling.

“Hearts seem to be unlucky that they are the team we are up against when we get everything right, but we don’t want to be beating just one team, we want to go on next week and the week after and be more consistently winning games.”

The feeling amongst many is that Dundee, granted late entry into the top flight after Rangers were banished to the Third Division, appear doomed to a quick return to the SFL but Nish, who is on loan from Hartlepool, insists that it is way too early to write them off.

“We know what we are capable of doing and if we can pick up a few more wins then it would put pressure on the other teams who have not felt the 
pressure we have been feeling recently.”

The last time Dundee beat Hearts, the international break prevented them from adding momentum, but this time around, everyone involved at Dens is hoping that a swift return to action could help them.

“[After the last win], we played 
Motherwell the next again week and 
we should have beaten them,” Nish added.

“We were 1-0 up (through Nish) but we gave away two goals in the last 
10 minutes, so hopefully we do roughly the same thing next week but don’t give away the two goals at the end.

“I think people have been writing us off. We have always known what we needed to do but we only talked about it, today we showed it.

“It’s not that big a gap if we were to win next week, and if we put in 
performances like we did today then we will be fine. I’m convinced of that.”

Hearts have their own woes. In their quest for goals they had rearranged personnel, starting with John Sutton and Callum Paterson up front. By the time they were getting a sniff at goal late in the day, they had virtually five strikers stalking Rab Douglas’ penalty area, 
having pushed their wide men even further forward and added centre-half Zaliukas to the throng. It still wasn’t enough to find an equaliser, let alone a winner.

The Lithuanian should have scored with a header and Gordon Smith 
almost found fellow substitute Jamie Walker with a ball fired across goal but the latter was inches from making the connection.

In midfield they struggled to compete, while they were far from solid at the back. The midweek exertions, having to complete their League Cup tie with 10 men before winning on penalties, could be used to explain the 
lethargy but the Tynecastle manager, John McGlynn, refused to make excuses.

He was unhappy at the way his men lost out – outplayed, outfought and out-thought by a side which grew in confidence as the game wore on. It proved that in this most unpredictable of 
seasons in this league, Dundee are not the only ones striving for consistency.

Taken from the Scotsman