REPORT: Dundee 0 - 2 Partick Thistle
Dundee remain rooted at the foot of the Ladbrokes Scottish Premiership after going down 2-0 to Partick Thistle at Dens Park.
Paul Hartley's side are now three points behind second-bottom Motherwell after goals in either half from Ade Azeez and Kris Doolan gave Alan Archibald's visitors a deserved victory on Tayside.
After a run of five games without a win, Dundee began as the more enterprising side with a testing Danny Williams cross in the third minute forcing Ryan Williams to muscle into the pack and punch the ball to safety.
But as the visitors eased themselves into the game, they were unlucky not to take the lead in 10th minute when Sean Welsh's corner was headed back across goal only for Liam Lindsay's powerful header crash off the underside of the crossbar.
With his team very much on the defensive, Cammy Kerr unleashed a wonderful 30-yard strike which flew narrowly wide.
With neither side showing much quality around goal the frustration of both sets of fans began to become apparent until Azeez's opener on 29 minutes.
Abdul Osman swung in an inviting cross which an unmarked Azeez rose to head across Bayne to score his first goal of the season
Seeing his team toiling in the air, manager Paul Hartley hauled off centre-back Kevin Gomis five minutes later and replaced him with Bulgarian defender Kostadin Gadzhalov.
As the game fizzled out to half-time, the hosts missed a glaring opportunity to equalise.
A wonderful curling cross from Kerr was missed by the goalkeeper but astonishingly captain Darren O'Dea steered his header wide from only three yards out.
On the hour, with Dundee's defence looking static and square, Azeez had the opportunity to extend Thistle's lead when he was put through by Doolan. Only the spread-eagled arms of Scott Bain prevented a goal.
The warning signs for the Dees were there for all to see. Two minutes later their defensive frailties were exposed and they were trailing by two goals.
Holt was easily outmuscled on the byline by Azeez, who then had the simple task of rolling the ball across to Doolan for the striker to side-foot the ball in from eight yards.
The second goal appeared to be the final straw for a dispirited Dundee side as they continued to toil.
O'Dea saw another header blocked by the goalkeeper but otherwise the visitors created the better chances as they ran out with a fully deserved victory.
Dundee manager Paul Hartley refused to make excuses after his side slumped to their sixth successive league defeat.
He said: Overall it wasn't good enough. It was a really disappointing performance.
We didn't deserve anything from the game. We had a little spell for 15 minutes in the first half when we were okay but that was about it.
We've got to pick a team now for Saturday's game against Hamilton and try to get a result from somewhere.
We're on a bad run. There's no getting away from that. We're at the bottom and aren't getting results. That can't continue.''