First Division: Douglas earns further praise as Dundee go top of the table

FOR the second week running an opposing manager came out singing the praises of Dundee goalkeeper Rab Douglas who was in fine form as Mickael Antoine-Curier's goal was enough to separate the Dark Blues from Clyde.

Last week Ross County's Derek Adams felt that the former Celtic and Scotland player was going to be a major factor in the Dens Park side's push for promotion and this week Clyde manager John Brown praised the goalkeeper.

Brown said: "I heard Rab had played a blinder last week and unfortunately for us he was in the same form on Saturday. I feel we were unlucky to go down as he made four or five great stops."

The winner arrived a minute before the break when Antoine-Curier controlled a long punt upfield from Douglas before firing home from 20 yards. Clyde battled vainly to get back into things and Pat Clarke and Billy Gibson both had chances which Douglas kept out in fine style.

Dundee manager Alex Rae, however, was more pleased with the result than the performance of his team.

He said: "I am pleased to have maximum points after two games although Saturday was really scrappy without any fluency in our game." Asked about Douglas, Rae added: "He made some great saves and showed exactly why we brought his type of quality to the club."

Partick Thistle's pink warriors also have maximum points after their much talked about away strip brought them good fortune in their 1-0 win at Airdrie United.

A lightning raid from defence to attack saw on-loan Hibs marksman Damon Gray notch the only goal 15 minutes from the end, his fourth goal in four games. Former Kilmarnock striker Paul Di Giacomo rattled a post early in the first half for the Diamonds and manager Kenny Black said: "I thought our application was tremendous, however, we switched off when an attack broke down and seconds later Thistle had the ball in our net."

Ross County were reduced to nine men as they went down 2-0 at Livingston. Steven Craig was adjudged to have elbowed Chris Innes and saw a straight red just before the end of the first half with defender Sean Higgins joining him in the second period as he was shown a second yellow for dissent.

Livingston went ahead in 10 minutes through Leigh Griffiths when he took a pass from Murray Davidson and shot past Tony Bullock. They grabbed a second when recent signing Jason Talbot tapped home in 66 minutes.

Livingston manager Roberto Landi said: "I am very happy with this victory as we deserved it. Both teams tried to play good football."

Queen of the South will go into their Uefa Cup tie with Nordsjaelland on Thursday on the back of a disappointing 2-1 defeat against Dunfermline. A double from home debutant Andy Kirk cancelled out Stewart Kean's opening goal on 26 minutes.

Queens saw defender Andy Aitken sent off for a challenge on Graham Bayne to leave manager Gordon Chisholm disappointed. "We were by far the better team in the first half and we deserved a point overall," he said.

"We paid for not taking our chances with bad defending costing us goals at the other end."

Morton and St Johnstone fought out a 2-2 draw at Cappielow where a Gavin Swankie strike gave St Johnstone a lead after Steven Milne and Ryan McGuffie traded goals. Saints looked like holding onto that advantage until eight minutes from time when Erik Paartalu shot home. Saints manager Derek McInnes said: "At 2-1, we seemed to want to hang on and stopped playing for a win. You are always liable to get caught out when you do that."