Dundee took a significant step towards Scottish Premiership safety as they came from behind against Kilmarnock and doomed their visitors to a 13th game without victory.
Steven Pressley’s side, largely written off at the start of the Premiership season, now move six points clear of managerless Kilmarnock in 11th and 10 points away from bottom side Livingston.
Greg Kiltie’s gift-wrapped goal, handed to him by a Luke Graham mistake, put Kilmarnock ahead at the break, but it was against the run of play.
Dundee’s had peppered the Kilmarnock box with shots but couldn’t find the breakthrough until just before the hour mark.
That was when Charlie Reilly nodded a cross back towards Ashley Hay to head in from a few yards out, and give Dundee a much-deserved leveller.
And Reilly added his own name to the scoresheet 15 minutes later when he curled in the winner on his first Premiership start.
The former Albion Rovers winger joined Dundee in 2023 but has spent time out with injury and struggled to break into the side.
However, given an opportunity in the absence of the suspended Simon Murray, the 24-year-old took his chance.
Pressley mentioned a stat pre-match that caught the ear. It had been 20 months since they last won consecutive Scottish Premiership matches – March 2024.
It was his wish to change that, and boy did he get it. Although for a while, it didn’t look like it was going to happen.
Dundee squandered numerous chances in the first-half. A Billy Koumetio header was cleared off the line. Callum Jones missed two opportunities. And Reilly scooped over from close range.
They were the kind of chances that Simon Murray of last season would have gobbled up. He was unavailable for this game through suspension, and has only scored one in 15 league games this year.
They are badly missing his goals of last season – 16 in total – but they were making enough chances that you felt a goal was coming.
They had taken eight shots by the 15th minute – already higher than their season average – and attempted 26 in total, their highest in any league match this term.
Simply, they attacked from the outset and only went behind due to a defensive lapse from the normally astute Luke Graham.
Kilmarnock’s stats paled in comparison. They had a few early chances, but apart from Kiltie’s goal they failed to test John McCracken too often.
They looked tired and ill-equipped to pull something out of the fire.
Doolan’s audition for the job has hit another bum note and a manager desperately needs to be appointed to stabilise a club sinking into a relegation quagmire.
Only four clear of Livingston, they are dangling dangerously and the game against David Martindale’s side on 10 January now looms ominously on the horizon.
There has been very little to glean any confidence from and fans are, unsurprisingly, fearful of their survival chances and statisticians are peering at the history books.
Their longest-ever winless streak? Fifteen games back in 1977. Not far away.
Dundee head coach Steven Pressley tells BBC Scotland: “I was exceptionally proud of the way they played.
“We played so well in the first half and went in 1-0 down. I said to them in the dressing room ‘there can be no hard luck stories tonight, we need to make sure we get what we deserve from the game’. They reacted brilliantly.
“There’s been so much growth in them recently. We had a really good result against Falkirk and coming into this game, I stressed we hadn’t recored back-to-back victories in 20 months.
“We had to own that, and change that. The players responded brilliantly.”
Kilmarnock interim manager Kris Doolan: “A sore one for everybody, especially after taking the lead in the first half. I thought we scored a terrific goal, we were asking to be clinical when you get fewer chances. You need to be clinical and take them. We did, and at half time there’s a lot of optimism.
“We spoke about driving home that lead, going for the next goal, making sure we’re the team in the front foot. But then we didn’t start the second half well enough, and obviously we lose that goal, which is a poor goal from our point of view.
“That gets them back in the game. It gets their tails up when really we wanted to hammer home the advantage.
“When you take the lead in these types of games, you should go on and win. It’s not as easy as that. It’s the Premiership.”
It’s a Dundee derby at Tannadice on Saturday for Pressley’s men, while Kilmarnock host Hibernian on the same day (both 15:00 GMT).
