Manager Post Dundee

17/01/10:- "In the second half I asked them to go out and show what they are made off and I thought they did that. We just didn't quite get that bit of luck on the day.

Jim McIntyre felt that his side paid for giving away two really sloppy goals:-

"It was the disappointing thing at the end of the day but I thought the players were magnificent especially in the second half when we really took the game to Dundee.  We pressed and pressed but it just wouldn't fall for us on the day.

The first goal was scored in just over two minutes and the Pars boss described it as "a terrible goal to give away"

"Twice we have not matched our runners and it was an easy ball across the face.  That free runner is galling; it shouldn't be happening. It did and it happened again the second time, that's not good enough and that is why we lost the game.  The defending side of it let us down today.

"To a man in the second half I asked them to go out and show what they are made off and I thought they did that. We just didn't quite get that bit of luck on the day.  We hit the bar, we had penalty appeals but it just wasn't falling."

The Manager could have praised almost every one of his players for their second half performance:-

"You could probably name six or seven players and say 'what a performance'. That is what you need with that type of consistency level throughout your team if you are going to do anything, we just didn't take our chances when they arrived.

Of the suggestion that there was no hangover evident from what had happened to the club in the last week, Jim McIntyre said:-

"No, not at all. It was great to get back on the football park and that is what the boys are paid to do.  We didn't start the game well, we had to pick it up but I thought in the second half we came out, went at Dundee right from the start and that set the tone for the second half.  It is very difficult when you start poorly to pick it up again.  Credit to the players, we showed today what a good side we are but the bottom line is that it is a defeat, a sore one to take.".

 Macca returned to competitive action for the first time in over a year.  He explained that he had been keeping his comeback somewhat of a secret:-

"I have been keeping it low key.  I have been training for the last month or so without any problems but I didn't want to let anybody know that because I have broken down so many times it is like broken record.  I thought I'd just keep training away and see where it led.  I felt that I would stick myself on the bench today.

"We have got Sam Morrow in on trial, he can play as a trialist but he hasn't played for a while and is not ready.  He picked up a wee injury in the middle of the week and only trained two days and I just felt the time was right (for Macca to comeback).

"I have gone on and ruffled them up a bit.  I was unfortunate the shot I got in was blocked, I caught it well enough.  It gives us a different option to have me available, I am a different kind of striker to what we have got.  The more options we've got the better."

Dundee's Manager Jocky Scott admitted that he could not see his team winning the game:-

"Especially after they equalised in the second half but all credit to the boys, they kept going, working hard with their heads up and it was a great finish from Sparky at the end of it."