Lyall Cameron hit a second-half double as Dundee leapfrogged faltering Motherwell to move into fifth place in the William Hill Premiership with a 4-1 victory at Dens Park.
The match was level at the break after on-loan Burnley attacker Oluwaseun Adewumi’s opener for the hosts was swiftly cancelled out by Apostolos Stamatelopoulos.
But the Steelmen imploded midway through the second half, conceding three goals in the space of seven minutes, as they succumbed to a third consecutive defeat.
There were two changes to the Dundee side that started Saturday’s 1-1 draw at Kilmarnock, with Fin Robertson and Seb Palmer-Houlden replaced by Scott Tiffoney and 19-year-old Adewumi.
Motherwell boss Stuart Kettlewell made four changes to the side that started Saturday’s 3-0 home defeat by Hibernian as Marvin Kaleta, Andy Halliday, Davor Zdravkovski and Tawanda Maswanhise all dropped to the bench to be replaced by Steve Seddon, Harry Paton, Tony Watt and Jair Tavares.
The visitors started brightly and Lennon Miller threatened with two shots from the edge of the box.
But Dundee took the lead with their first notable attack in the 15th minute as Adwewumi was released on the left by Tiffoney before gliding into the box, cutting inside Kofi Balmer and curling a lovely angled finish beyond Aston Oxborough from just outside the six-yard box.
Motherwell required just four minutes to get themselves level. Tavares slipped a lovely through ball into the path of Paton, who was tackled – and potentially fouled – just inside the box by Mo Sylla. The loose ball broke nicely into the path of Stamatelopoulos whose first shot was blocked by Jon McCracken before he forced in the rebound from close range.
The visitors had a couple of opportunities to go ahead towards the end of the first half, with Watt denied by McCracken before Seddon fizzed an angled shot just over in the last action before the interval.
Well continued to look the likelier side in the early stages of the second period as Paton fired over from 20 yards before the same player slid a close-range effort agonisingly wide of the near post from a Watt cut-back.
The match suddenly started to unravel for the Steelmen though after Dundee regained the lead on the hour mark.
Following a rapid counter-attack from a Well corner, Antonio Portales fed Tiffoney who cut in from the left and curled a low shot beyond Oxborough from just inside the box.
The visitors protested as they felt play should have been stopped prior to that due to Balmer lying injured in the box.
Three minutes later Cameron increased the hosts’ advantage with a deflected strike from just outside the box.
And the Scotland Under-21 midfielder struck again in the 67th minute when he drove home from 15 yards after Simon Murray had outmuscled Balmer on the left and cut the ball back into his path.
