Dundee 0-2 Aberdeen: Hosts fears deepen with Dons defeat

Dundee's relegation fears deepened as Aberdeen inflicted their seventh consecutive Scottish Premiership defeat.

A Sam Cosgrove double in the second half did the damage for Jim McIntyre's men, who fall three points adrift of second-bottom St Mirren.

They are now seven behind Hamilton Academical with 15 points to play for.

Cosgrove, who took his season's tally to 20, keeps the visitors level on points with Kilmarnock in third.

The result gives the visitors their first back-to-back win of 2019, and keeps their 15-year unbeaten record at Dundee intact.

• Reaction & as it happened

Cosgrove punishes plucky Dundee

Jim McIntyre said beforehand that every game from now for struggling Dundee should be treated as a cup final. And his side came out looking confident and organised, every bit like a team fighting to remove themselves from their perilous league position.

Aberdeen - who have been victorious in their last five Premiership outings to Dens Park - applied early pressure and dominated the ball, but failed to produce anything of real note in the opening half.

It was Dundee's Craig Curran who showed ambition, striking high from 35 yards, while Ethan Robson's effort whipped by Joe Lewis and thumped off the left post. His follow up long-range effort on half-time forcing a diving save from Dons goalkeeper Joe Lewis.

A penalty claim from Aberdeen, as Connor McLennan's cross appeared to strike the arm of Paul McGowan, was waved away by referee Andrew Dallas.

Again Dundee came out impressively and looked composed at both ends - which is why it will have hurt all the more when Callum Moore brought down Lewis Ferguson in the box to concede a penalty. Cosgrove neatly delivered it low into the bottom left corner of the net.

The striker then added to his tally when McLennan drove deep into the penalty area for Cosgrove to chip in another from close range.

Day of consequence at Dens Park - analysis

BBC Scotland's Tyrone Smith at Dens Park

This wasn't pretty at Dens Park, it wasn't pretty at all, but the outcome was significant for both teams, and for very different reasons.

For Aberdeen it's two wins on the spin, keeping them well in the mix for European places. But it also means they will go into next week's Scottish Cup semi-final with Celtic in fine fettle.

As for Dundee, it now means seven defeats in a row for them, they remain rock bottom and their Premiership fate will now be settled over what is sure to be a nerve-jangling final five games.

'There's a lot of football still to be played' - reaction

Dundee manager, Jim McIntyre, said: "It's another defeat and one of real disappointment from what we put into the game as I felt up until the penalty we were right in the match.

"I've said from day one, a trait of my teams is that we'll stick at it and not feel sorry for ourselves, but it's hard on a run like this when you keep conceding cheap goals to then go again, and again. We've got to be better in the key moments.

"We know what we'll have to do in the split, it's looking like we'll need to win at least four out of five games, but there's a lot of football still to played."

Aberdeen manager, Derek McInnes, said: "It wasn't all plain sailing. We had good control of the game, but were guilty of giving the ball away and not showing enough confidence and care on the ball.

"The first goal is important in these games, but I thought the performance of each and every player went up a couple of notches in the second half.

"We've got a semi-final to look forward to so now we want to gives ourselves the best chance against the best team in the country."