Tony Docherty lauds Rangers-bound Lyall Cameron after star turn

Tony Docherty said Lyall Cameron was fully deserving of the standing ovation from the home fans when he was taken off in the 4-0 win against Airdrieonians.

The 22-year-old midfielder has signed a pre-contract with Rangers and will move to Ibrox in the summer.

However, Cameron showed he is very much still fully committed to Dundee, netting a double in the first half against the Diamonds with teammates Clark Robertson and Seun Adewumi also on the scoresheet.

The win stopped the rot for the Dark Blues after two successive 6-0 defeats in the league to Hearts and Celtic and Docherty was pleased his side had made it through to the quarter-finals.

The manager said: “I’m absolutely delighted. The objective was getting through the tie and keeping a clean sheet. It was a really professional job.

“The game was won in the first half, arguably the first 20 minutes when we scored two goals, and I was really impressed with the players.

“I asked them for a reaction and they showed me that.”

Docherty added: “Lyall is fully committed to this football club and you can see the reaction he got from the fans when he came off.

“That’s nothing more than he deserves because he’s been a brilliant servant.

“But no question at all about Lyall’s commitment towards us.

“We have objectives this season and Lyall Cameron is a massive part of that.

“He’s a really ambitious young man and a really talented young man.

“And there’s more chance of winning football matches with Lyle Cameron in the team. Not just because of his ability, but because of his mentality and his attitude.

“That’s served him well and it’ll serve Dundee well until the end of the season.”

Airdrie boss Rhys McCabe admitted his players were the architects of their own downfall and his young team have to take heed of the harsh lessons.

McCabe said: “It was a game of two halves but we ultimately shot ourselves in the foot with the first 45.

“It is always going to be a difficult task at the best of times coming up to a team like Dundee. You probably need a lot of things to go your way and we obviously gifted them far too many goals and things that were avoidable in the first half.

“You are coming in at half-time, boys are deflated and you are trying to set yourself a little target; ‘Can you go and try to win the second half?’.

“Make sure you learn from that first 45 which obviously we know wasn’t acceptable.

“I think we did that in fairness and were maybe unlucky not to get a goal or two but ultimately, the damage was done in the first 45.”