Dundee made five changes for the last Derby of the season, with Brad Halliday, Drew Wright, Joel Cotteril, Tony Yogane and Simon Murray all dropping to the bench to make way for Ryan Astley, Imari Samuels, Joe Westley, Scott Wight and Ashley Hay.
Dundee got off to a slow start and United looked better in the midfield going forward. Westley had a wee chance but curled the ball wide of the goal. United took the lead on 14 minutes with a slow motion goal, a shot took two deflections and when in off the post.
Dundee hit back but Luke Graham was unlucky when his shot was cleared off the line. United then came close twice as Dundee lost the ball in midfield.
There was a period of end-to-end stuff, with Dundee taking their turn. Dhanda made a fine pass to Cameron Congreve, who managed to shrug off a few defenders to make a run into the box. When he went to pull the trigger, the home defence blocked his shot for a corner that came to nothing.
Dundee then got a free kick after Wright had been fouled. The resulting free-kick was swung deep in the box, and Graham got his head onto it, but his shot came off the back of an orange shirt and out for a corner. From the corner, Dundee thought they had levelled the scoring through Westley putting his body on the line to nod the ball into the net, but after a VAR check, the referee decided that the goal shouldn’t stand after a shirt pull from Ryan Astley in the build-up.
Ethan Hamilton had a shot which was blocked and soon after the half time whistle went. At least Dundee were only one goal down.
Second half and in the first 15 minutes both teams battled in midfield with Und being better getting to the second ball. They pushed forward and had a few efforts on goal.
Both clubs made changes in the 68th minute. Simon Murray and Charlie Reilly took the field for Scott Wright and Cameron Congreve, while United put on Ivan Dolcek for Max Watters
But two minutes later it was 2-0 when Ferry shot home, minutes later it was 3-0 and game over, Strain heading home.
Dundee kept coming forward but struggled to get the ball down and play football as they did a few months ago.
The time went quickly and it was time up with thankfully no more goals for United.
Big game next week as we face St Mirren at Dens, only bonus the week is Kilmarnock and St Mirren lost at the weekend.
Dundee: McCracken. Samuels, Koumetio, Graham, Astley, Hamilton, S. Wright (Murray 69), Dhanda, Congerve (Reilly 69), Westley, Hay (Yogane 79). Unused Subs: O’Hara, Halliday, Cotterill, Jones, F. Robertson, D. Wright
Referee: Matthew MacDermid
Att: 13,207
