James McPake has told his Dundee players to forget about the league table and concentrate on rediscovering the form that propelled them up the division at the end of 2020.
That’s after seeing his Dark Blues fall further behind runaway Championship leaders Hearts at the weekend with a disappointing 3-1 defeat at Raith Rovers.
The Jambos compounded the Dee dismay with a hard-fought 1-0 home success over fellow promotion hopefuls Dunfermline at Tynecastle.
Dundee dropped to fourth in the table while Hearts can be 16 points clear of McPake’s men by the time they next take to the pitch, though their match at Ayr on Friday will have seen the Edinburgh side play two more games.
However, more important to the Dens gaffer is putting the Stark’s Park defeat behind them on Saturday at home to Inverness Caley Thistle.
McPake said: “We are only halfway through the season and we need to get back to winning ways.
“Consistency is what gets you out of this division. We had been eight unbeaten before Saturday, though there were draws in there.
“We need to turn those draws into wins, get another run going and just forget about everybody else.
“If we can be consistent then we can get ourselves out of this league.”