Sofien Moussa at the double as Dundee get up and running with a win

Posted Sunday, July 15, 2018 by PA

Sofien Moussa grabbed a double as Dundee began their Betfred Cup campaign with a convincing 4-0 win over League Two Stirling Albion at Forthbank.

The lively Tunisian striker opened the scoring in the 39th minute of the opening Group D encounter with a close-range volley and headed in a second in the 56th minute before setting up debutant Jean Mendy, signed from Lokeren, for a third.

Craig Wighton’s delightful finish in the 69th minute added more gloss to the scoreline as Neil McCann’s side ran out comfortable winners.

It was a good day all round for McCann who gave competitive debuts to Jack Hamilton, Elton Ngwatala, Nathan Ralph and Mendy with his other new signing Karl Madianga coming off the bench in the second half.

The Premiership side should have taken the lead on the half-hour mark when a Cammy Kerr cross landed at the feet of Moussa but he failed to hit the target from six yards.

However, the Dundee forward made up for his glaring miss when he pulled a long ball from captain Genseric Kusunga out of the air with some confidence and fired it past Cameron Binnie from 10 yards.

Just before the interval the Stirling keeper, who had denied Mendy in the 14th minute, made a similar save from Wighton, tipping the ball over the bar for a corner, which came to nothing.

The home team came close to levelling at the start of the second-half but Jason Marr’s header from a Danny Jardine corner was brilliantly saved by Hamilton.

However, in the 57th minute Moussa rose unmarked at the back post to head in a Wighton cross and seven minutes later he unselfishly played in Mendy and the Senegalese attacker rifled the ball low past Binnie.

Dundee grew further in confidence and Wighton took a pass from Glen Kamara before curling in the fourth to seal a comfortable victory for the Taysiders.