Crisis? What crisis?
Despite Dundee’s relatively slow start to the SPL season, defender Matt Lockwood has insisted no-one at Dens Park is panicking just yet simply because the club has had to overcome far worse setbacks in recent years.
The 35-year-old was with the Dark Blues when the club entered administration two years ago, bringing with it a 25-point deduction many pundits thought would relegate Dundee to the Second Division and take them to the brink of extinction.
Remarkably, though, Dundee beat the odds to finish sixth in the table that season and amass an incredible total of 44 points nine ahead of ninth-placed Cowdenbeath, who eventually dropped down a league.
In that context, Lockwood has not been too perturbed by the fact his side have only managed one win and a draw on their return to the SPL so far.
He said: ”It’s only four points that we’re bottom by. There’s nothing in it, really, when you look at the league.
”If you consider we were docked 25 points by the SFL for going into administration, that’s what you call a big deficit.
”This is tiny by comparison, the amount of points we have to pull back, so we’ve nothing to worry about right now. This is nothing compared to that so we’re still in good spirits and are confident about getting up the league table.”
While Dundee’s early form has not entirely been earth-shattering, the left-sided defender fully appreciates that the Dark Blues will have to start picking up victories soon or risk being cut well adrift at the foot of the table.
However, there has been plenty of encouragement for the Dundee players in recent weeks and Lockwood believes the team can emulate their last trip to Edinburgh a surprise 1-0 win at Hearts when they travel to play Hibs this weekend.
He said: ”We’re not hitting the panic button or anything like that.
”It’s still early days but, at the same time, we want to start turning things round as soon as possible.
”If we were to fall about seven or eight points behind then it would become a bit harder but that’s not the case as things stand.
”The standard in the SPL is a bit higher than the First Division.
”But it’s not as though we’re getting hammered by teams or are being really outclassed.
”We’ve been punished for either giving bad goals away or not taking our chances and it’s a tough lesson to learn.
”But we’re taking that on board and are working towards the Hibs game this weekend, when we believe we can get the three points.
”Just look at St Johnstone. They were down at the bottom of the league at the start of September and then all of a sudden they’ve climbed up a few places thanks to three wins on the trot. It shows it can be done and we should be looking to try and do the same thing in the next few weeks.”