Simon Murray scores for Dundee against St MirrenSNS

Simon Murray's 14th Scottish Premiership goal of the season put Dundee ahead

Watch Dundee v St Mirren highlights

05/04/25

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Brian McLauchlin
BBC Sport Scotland at Dens Park

Simon Murray scored in each half to leaven Dundee's Scottish Premiership's relegation fears and simultaneously dent St Mirren's top six hopes.

It took just two minutes for Murray to lift spirits around Dens with a smart strike and another attempt after the break, capitalising on a Zach Hemming mistake, took the 33-year-old level with Daizen Maeda as the division's top scorer with 15.

It also moves his side eight clear of bottom side St Johnstone, who host leaders Celtic on Sunday, and close to Motherwell and Ross County as well as St Mirren, whose top-six hopes will be over if Hearts beat Dundee United on Sunday.

The visitors had threatened first, Mark O'Hara having an attempt from 16 yards blocked by Trevor Carson's knees, before Murray's opener.

Oluwaseun Adewumi kept Jordan McGhee's cross alive and Murray pounced to hammer home his 20th goal of the campaign in all competitions.

St Mirren's Jonah Ayunga was guilty of a glaring miss with a header but his side - who won so handsomely against Kilmarnock last weekend - started the second period strongly.

Caolin Boyd-Munce tested Carson, who was again called into action when O'Hara fired in an awkward low free-kick from the left edge of the box.

However, Tony Docherty's hosts doubled their advantage after a shocking mistake by Hemming.

The keeper's attempted a kick out hit Murray and the striker reacted sharply to roll the ball into the net from 35 yards as the hapless Hemming scrambled back in vain.

St Mirren kept pushing and Richard Taylor had a header off the crossbar on what turned out to be a frustrating day for the Paisley side.

Shaugnessy & Murray show way for Dundee

Given all the pressure on a Dundee defence which had conceded 67 goals in the league, this was a victory in so many ways for the home side.

There are no secrets when it comes to knowing how St Mirren play, with plenty of balls fired into the box, but those were marshalled at the back magnificently by Joe Shaughnessy.

And when you have a goal machine up front in Murray, you are always going to have a chance. His style and awareness throughout the game was a joy to watch.

Dundee may remain second bottom but they certainly showed they are more than up for a fight to retain their top-flight status.

St Mirren's destiny not in own hands

They may have lost the game but there was little to be critical about St Mirren's overall performance.

They created numerous chances but were up against a Dundee defence out to prove their critics wrong.

With County at home in their final game before the split, they will fancy themselves to get all three points next time out.

However, they are now reliant on Hearts falling short this weekend and next.

What they said

Dundee manager Tony Docherty: "I'm absolutely delighted for the boys, I think they got the rewards for the effort they put in.

"The clean sheet's the most important thing. The two centre-backs in particular, I thought they were magnificent. They know if they can defend, we've got players in the team that will score and that's a great feeling."

St Mirren manager Stephen Robinson: "We controlled the game but our quality was poor. We have three or four really good gilt-edged chances that we miss.

"There's a lot of good in it but the end product was poor all over the pitch. If your end product's poor and you make individual errors, which we did, we get punished for, then you lose football matches."

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