There can’t be many people left who believe Dundee will be relegated from the first division in May, but the players and management at Dens Park are collectively putting fingers in their ears.
Saturday’s typically hard-fought 1-0 win over Stirling Albion lifted Barry Smith’s men up a place and put seven points worth of clear Dark Blue water between themselves and their weekend opponents.
That’s 15 league games and counting since Dundee last lost a league game, so you can see why it’s now widely accepted that survival is all but a foregone conclusion.
Veteran keeper Rab Douglas, who was at his vintage best at Forthbank, is having none of it however.
“We’ve got miles to go,” he insisted. “At the moment we’re churning out the results, but it’s a case of taking one game at a time and not getting too far ahead of ourselves.
“We’ve won games we probably deserved to lose and at some point we’ll probably lose ones we deserve to win. There’s still well over a quarter of the season to go so we’re definitely not getting carried away.
“There will be teams that go on great runs and others on losing runs. You just have to look at Stirling. They’re bottom just now, but you can see that they’ve impoved under Jocky (Scott). They’ll feel they can climb the table.
“We’ll need points on the board for when the injuries and suspensions kick in.”CopingCoping without their right-back tomorrow night at Stark’s Park against Raith Rovers will be their next task.
Gary Irvine was given a straight red card just after the hour mark for a crude two-footed foul on Ross Forsyth.
Thankfully, Forsyth wasn’t badly injured, but there was no doubt that Irvine deserved to go.
It was an out-of-character challenge, though, as Douglas pointed out. He said, “Gary’s not a malicious player and I think he slipped just before he made the tackle.
“He’s disappointed he let the boys down, but he’s done his bit for us on plenty of occasions this season. It was always going to be hard once we were down to 10 men, but we dug in and held out.
“The boys are producing performances week-in and week-out, and that was a massive result for us.
“We’ll have to do without Gary on Tuesday and there’s no doubt that suspensions will hit us harder than most teams because of the size of our squad.
“Mind you, other squads may have more numbers, but they won’t fight for each other like this one.”
There were passages of play in the first half that were up there with the best Dundee have produced during their long undefeated streak.
The goal itself on 35 minutes was a fine example. After a well-crafted move in the centre of midfield the ball was ushered out to the left where Matt Lockwood surged to the byline and hung up a perfectly-weighted cross that Sean Higgins bulleted home with his head.DeterminationIf they were able to show the more refined side of their play in the opening period, the second was more about “they shall not pass” determination.
Even before Irvine’s red card, former Scotland keeper Douglas had been called upon to make three saves at full stretch. Indeed, if anything, the Stirling fightback lost its momentum once they had the one-man advantage.
The large away support which must have been around the 1600 mark played its part as usual.
Douglas stressed that just because the fans have showed their loyalty on countless occasions over recent months, both financially and vocally, doesn’t mean the backing is taken for granted.
He said, “We say it every week, but the supporters were unbelievable again. They turned up in big numbers and we needed them to help us in the last few minutes. There won’t be any tycoons bailing Dundee out, it’s the working-class people who watch us week in and week out.”
Dens boss Smith echoed his keeper’s words of caution about their league position.
He stated, “Obviously I’m delighted wth the three points, but there’s still a lot of games to be played. At this stage it’s no more important than any other win.”
Former Dundee manager Scott, who was given a warm reception from the travelling fans, has a big job on his hands to drag Stirling off the foot of the table but he believes there are signs of encouragement.
He explained, “Big Rab had three or four excellent saves and had it not been for them we might have got something out of the game.
“I see a big improvement from when I came in and as long as we keep improving we’ll give ourselves a chance.”