13 hours Ago By George Cran
Dundee have confidence from recent performances – now they need wins. St Mirren are the visitors on Saturday with the Buddies knowing the result at Dens Park could make or break their top six hopes. Goals are expected between the sides – Dundee don’t do anything else while St Mirren’s last four games have all seen at least four goals fly in.
The pair played out a 2-2 draw in the City of Discovery back in August before a Simon Murray double earned a depleted Dark Blues a vital 2-1 win in Paisley. They scored eight goals between them last weekend and six the matchday previous. Who, though, will come out in top in a massive contest? boss Tony Docherty said: “St Mirren had a fabulous result and performance last week and will be buoyed from that.
“We had a really strong performance but we never got the result that I felt we merited. “It will be a difficult game but Stephen [Robinson] does an excellent job and it will be a tough, tough match. “This season we have done well against them.
“It is very much the business end and it will be a real challenge but one we are looking forward to.” Dundee have fresh options available after They join Billy Koumetio in pushing for a return to the team after the Frenchman was an unused sub against Rangers last time after three months out. That leaves the only Dark Blues absentees being Lyall Cameron (hamstring) and Scott Fraser (groin).
St Mirren can welcome back Mikael Mandron after he returned to the bench for last week’s 5-1 win over Kilmarnock. Elvis Bwonomo (calf), Conor McMenamin (calf), Alex Iacovitti (hamstring/back) and Evan Mooney (ankle) all missed last week’s contest. Toyosi Olusanya is back from a one-match ban.
The man in the middle for this one will be John Beaton, assisted by Jonathan Bell and Ross Nelson. Beaton has shown 175 yellow cards in 35 matches this season, an average of five per game. He’s also shown five red cards, including two in his last three games – one for Morton defender Dylan Corr in the Championship before going on UEFA Conference League duty and sending off Panathinaikos midfielder Filip Mladenovic during their defeat to Fiorentina.
Beaton’s last Dundee match was December’s 4-1 win over Motherwell. On VAR duty is Steven McLean, assisted by Gary Hilland..
