There are many fans who post reviews of the season, generally all written after the season has finished. With the benefit and prejudice of hindsight, these reviews I feel inevitably colour the review based on the final position. Where this post is different is that I will update it as we go throughout the season and only publish at the end. The purpose of this blog post is to capture the swings of emotion and hope as Dundee progress through the season, to capture that journey in something closer to real-time. It will be interesting to see how this form of season review compares with other posts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Scottish football seasons are quite long, there are 38 league matches, cup games (the mini league format in play this season gives 4 guaranteed matches in the league cup plus at least one in the Scottish Cup), and pre-season friendlies to take into account. I’m starting the blog post in late June 2025 and the season is not planned to end until last May 2026. That’s the best part of 11 months from start to end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The off-season started with a bang. After our last match, a 2-0 away victory at St Johnstone, and a very enjoyable Player of the Year dinner, manager Tony Docherty was sacked<\/a> on Monday 19-May. Tony had been at the PotY dinner and there had not been any explicit sign that has was about to leave; as it transpired he already knew he had a meeting with the board (at least with John Nelms) on the Monday morning so he must have known what was about to happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Looking back on last season, Tony’s departure was not a total shock. We escaped the dreaded playoffs on the very last game and many of the defensive problems of Tony’s first season had not improved. The timing certainly was a surprise as a hungover Ian tried to process the news that morning over a hotel breakfast. Again, in retrospect, Nelms had made his decision and what better time to clear the decks than the morning after the last game of the season?<\/p>\n\n\n\n We had to wait until the 2nd of June before knowing who would replace Tony, and again it was a surprise when Steven Pressley<\/a> was announced. My initial reaction was that “Elvis” was too much of an Arab<\/a>, but that we would need to get behind him. I do feel that he’ll be on a short leash with the Dundee fans (as indeed Tony would have been) so time will tell. His interviews have been generally well received and I think the general sentiment amongst Dundee fans is a little more supportive than when the news first broke. Two friendlies played (against Arbroath and Brechin) and two victories have helped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I’m going to hold off on a squad update until closer to the league season. Mainly since I’m hoping that we have a few new signings to come. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The competitive season starts on Saturday with the League Cup group stages. Playing Airdrie, Alloa, Bonnyrigg Rose and Montrose should offer insights into how the new team will gel. We’re obviously expecting to top the group; indeed to win all 4 games. Beyond that, it’s hard to see how the team will perform. I have lower expectations than last season, top-6 will be great but I’m not expecting it. I’m hoping we won’t “just” squeak into 10th on the last game of the season again.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n Section completed on Wednesday 9-July.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dundee 0 – 1 Airdrie<\/a>. Following a couple of positive pre-season friendly wins against Arbroath<\/a> and Brechin<\/a>, we left Glasgow on a warm summer day for my first trip of the new season. Unfortunately, we lost 1-0, conceding a poor goal with last season’s defensive frailties exposed again. My overall impression was that we looked cumbersome and too slow to play the ball about giving Airdrie plenty of time to mark up. An uninspiring start to the season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Alloa 1 – 0 Dundee<\/a>. And it got worse. An even worse performance saw Dundee lose again to lower league opposition; a result which saw us out of the League Cup. Elvis rung the changes but in my eyes it didn’t really make a difference to the pace of play which was too slow again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Bonnyrigg Rose 1 – 3 Dundee<\/a>. Finally Dundee scored (a scrappy goal, but a goal) and indeed won a game against a team who had just been relegated from the SPFL. Playing at Ferguson Park, Dundee really only took control in the latter stages, arguable after Bonnyrigg began to tire. Bonnyrigg showed no fear and scored a pretty good goal themselves, I actually felt that their style of play helped Dundee play with more tempo themselves. It’s hard to be too excited after a win against a team from the fifth tier but if we’d won 6-0 after those first two games it would have been hard to be excited too. Looking at it another way, if we’d open the campaign with this game it would likely have been looked on as a professional result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dundee 5 – 0 Montrose<\/a>. A game which I was only able to watch on Dee TV. Montrose had decent spells of possession and their fans will feel aggrieved at the severity of the scoreline if the not the result. A winning end to the cup campaign overshadowed by the overall disappointing campaign and leaving fans with lots of concern going into the new season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It looked like these games were played as pre-season perhaps to allow Elvis to assess his players and try them out in different positions. Overall performances were not good enough and whatever hope we had after the off season has pretty much evaporated. Whilst there was some improvement in the last two games, it was against lower league opposition and it’s hard to see a pattern emerge to show how we will play effective football. It looks like being a long season ahead with many fans expecting a relegation fight.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n Section completed on 31st July.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Match 1; Dundee 1 – 2 Hibs, Sunday 3-August<\/span>. There was a certain amount of fear before this game, Hibs had been perhaps the stand-out team last season, and following the less then impressive League Cup campaign I was worried that we’d get a real doing. In fact, we gave a creditable performance; the first Hibs goal came from a deflection in the box. truth be told, the defence looked decent and perhaps of Premiership quality. Strange to walk away from a home defeat feeling more confident than when we went in but that’s a reflection of how poor our start was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Match 2; Rangers 1 – 1 Dundee, Saturday 9-August<\/span>. the build up for this game had some ill-judged or demeaning comments from Lyall Cameron. For some reason Rangers presented him to the press before their Tuesday evening European game, unfortunately, albeit under some goading from the West Coast Media, Lyall was less than complimentary about his time at Dundee. I’m a bit split on these comments, on one hand he’s a young laddie, on the other hand it’s not hard to be professional and there’s a certain suspicion around why he was paraded in front of the media in the week of first game against his previous club. Turning to the game, Dundee played well. Yes it was a defensive effort, but we looked organised, committed, strong, fit. We were unlucky to only get the one point with the refs not slow to give a 91st minute penalty to Rangers; a penalty of the soft variety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Match 3; Kilmarnock 0 – 0 Dundee, Saturday 23-August<\/span>. I didn’t watch this game so closely due to being in Helsinki and busy getting ready to go out. Another away game where the defence played credibly limiting the home team to handful of chances. We scored a goal chalked off, correctly, for offside, but again looked organised. So two credible away draws, team looking organised, maybe Elvis is making progress…<\/p>\n\n\n\n Match 4; Dundee 0 – 2 United, Sunday 31-August<\/span>. Well what a disaster. Losing to them is bad enough but we looked without spirit, passion, energy and almost any attacking intent. That looked like a poor United team, or perhaps we just played out defensive duties well, but the Dundee performance was just insipid. Getting bear is one thing, not showing spirit or fight is another; hard to excuse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In summary the first 4 games showed some organisation, perhaps we’ll be a hard team to beat, and hopefully we’ll not concede so many simple or so many late goals. On the attacking side we look poor in comparison. Simon Murray is perhaps not yet fully recovered from his knee injury sustained against Montrose. The new signings whilst showing bits of promise don’t yet seem to be gelling in a way which will give us goals. One month in and still early days but it’s still looking like a season fighting relegation.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n Section completed on 13-September.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Match 5. Dundee 1 – 1 Motherwell<\/span>. Played in front of a small crowd at Dens, we really played a game of two halves here. After a slow start, Motherwell really dominated the first half playing some nice football. We went in at half time one goal down with a very unhappy home support. Following on from the derby, this was another 45 minutes of disappointing football. All changed in second half, largely helped by the introduction of Cameron Congreve, on loan from Swansea. Cam played wide right and started positively running at the Motherwell defence. This seemed to catch on across the park and we equalised shortly after the restart with Luke Graham nodding in a cross from Cam. Despite some good chances, we were unable to get more from the game, the ending of which was marred by the sending off of Yan Dhanda. A much improved performance second half though was welcomed by the home support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Match 6. Dundee 3 – 2 Livingston<\/span>. This game was followed from the Algarve DSC. We stated well, following on from the second 45 in the prior week with Congreve again looking impressive and setting up two goals; one for Simon Murray just before half time and the second for Joe Westley. Latterly we fell out of the game a little and Livi pulled back level; the first from a Clark Robertson own-goal and the second from a penalty conceded by Clark. There was a little doubt over this penalty; Robertson seemed to play the ball cleanly enough and the Livi player I felt ran into the collision but no VAR. In the final moments of the match, Livi should really have scored a third but a combination of a weak finish and a “worldly” save from Jon McCracken kept it at 2-2. Dundee broke up-field from that incident and, as Charlie Reilly broke into the box he was brought down. Penalty. There was a lengthy VAR review, including the referee being called to monitor, before the penalty was confirmed. Callum Jones scored the winning goal. Excellent. Our first win of the season, rightly celebrated. However, if that Livi chance had gone in the atmosphere would have been so different – we were close to losing a game from a two goal lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Match 7. St Mirren 1 – 0 Dundee<\/span>. A short trip to Paisley, with a definite autumnal feel. I felt that this match was pretty close with both team cancelling themselves out. St Mirren scored in the first half, whilst they had some possession they weren’t looking particularly dangerous. Dundee had some nice football too including a long period eventually resulting in a somewhat weak shot from Drey Wright. We didn’t really create much either and seemed to be missing Simon Murray, absent from this match with an illness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Looking back on the month, we have a victory under our belts, and are sitting in 9th place. Most fans will be happy with that position should we able to retain it. It still feels, however, that we haven’t really found our shape or tactics. At times we’ve been quite negative and trying to play without the ball, however there are some bright sparks in there. The next few games are important with a trip away to bottom of the table Aberdeen, a visit from title favourites Celtic and a tricky away tie at Falkirk all to take place in October. Hearts, Hibs and Rangers all feature in November before we complete the first round of fixtures. <\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n Section completed on 1-October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Match 8. Aberdeen 4 – 0 Dundee<\/span>. On Sunday 5-October we travelled to the win less Aberdeen, in fact an Aberdeen team who had not scored a league goal. Simon Murray returned to the line-up as did Jan Dhanda following his suspension. Overall we therefore started with a pretty attacking line-up. It did not take long since we were 3 down inside half an hour. Aberdeen seemed to run through our midfield all first half virtually unchallenged. In truth, we could have conceded five before half time. A poor performance overall, Dundee were outclassed and our poor run at Pittodrie continues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Match 9. Dundee 2 – 0 Celtic<\/span>. Talking of poor runs, the reigning champions visited Dens for a Sunday noon game. I viewed much of this game from the Brussels DSC with a Hibby on way home from Bruges. Dundee’s stall was somewhat predictable, defend in depth at time and play on the break. In the first half I thought we were clearly the better team scoring two goals made by Cameron Congrieve (one from a header by Clark Robertson and the second just before half time from Match 10. Falkirk 2 – 1 Dundee<\/span>. Our first league trip to the new Falkirk Stadium although we have been there on League Cup business a few years ago (one of the coldest evenings watching football ever). This has to go down as a missed opportunity, we started strongly and deservedly went ahead through that Congrieve\/Robertson combination again. This week it was the turn of VAR to stuff things up by not awarding a clear penalty in the first half. That changed the game since we could have been 2-0 up potentially with Falkirk down to 10 men. Second half, Falkirk changed things up a bit and put us under some pressure, deservedly equalising (after hitting the woodwork). We kind of stabilised late on and the game looked like it was heading for a draw until a wicked bounce of the ball seemed to take out and bamboozle the Dundee midfield where the defence parted to allow the d\u00e9butante Connor Allan to win the game for The Bairns. A frustrating end to the day after playing so well first half we didn’t adapt to the changes made by Falkirk second half. At half time we were in third position in the league, that dropped to third bottom at full time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A frustrating end to the month. We are playing very inconsistently just now; a historic win against Celtic was bookended by a loss to Aberdeen when we were outclassed and a frustrating loss to Falkirk where we should have at least drawn. Following midweek games we are now second bottom, although the league is still tight. Cam Congrieve has emerged as a real attacking threat, Hamilton and Digby appear to offer some strength and grit in midfield. On the negative side, the defence is still shipping too many goals and we are struggling in open play with Simon Murray looking a little out of sorts. A tough run of games ahead: away to both Hearts and Hibs with Rangers at home in between. Whilst the league is still tight, that’s not the run of games where you would predict us picking up many points.<\/p>\n\n\n\nLeague Cup Group Stages<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
We played 4 League Cup games. (click to expand…)<\/em><\/summary>\n
August Games<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
In July we played four games; two at home and two away. (click to expand…)<\/em><\/summary>\n
September Games<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
In September we played only three games. (click to expand…)<\/em><\/summary>\n
October Games<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
In October, we again played three games. (click to expand…)<\/em><\/summary>\n
Joe Westley<\/s> Cameron Carter-Vickers). There were a number of other chances where we could have scored. Second half was more of a back to the wall performance, VAR stepping in to rule out a Penalty to Celtic, albeit Simon Murray passed up a great chance to make it 3. So we beat Celtic at Dens for the first time in 37 years, keeping a clean sheet in the process. What a result!<\/p>\n\n\n\n