Boss Jim McIntyre has praised the contribution of the “old heads” in his line-up as they battled to get Dundee off the bottom of the Premiership.
Saturday’s draw at Hibs saw the spine of the team contain plenty experience with Darren O’Dea (31) in central defence, Martin Woods (32) at the heart of the midfield and Paul McGowan (31) operating just behind the main striker – 38-year-old Kenny Miller.
Jim felt all made significant contributions as his side fought back from two goals down after half-an-hour to earn what could prove a vital point come the end of the season.
With St Mirren chalking up a shock win over Hearts, Dundee’s share of the spoils kept the gap at the bottom of the table to a manageable three points going into a hectic December that will see them face seven games.
McGowan and Miller both got on the scoresheet as well as putting in a hard shift and Jim highlighted their work, saying: “It was a great goal he got and Paul McGowan has always had ability. He is two or three seconds ahead of people upstairs but he has to do things nice and sharp when he gets into these areas. His finish was brilliant.
“And Kenny did brilliant. We made a wee tinker to the shape not long after the game started because we knew if they went a certain way we had to.
“We still looked threatening and that was the most important thing – he was part of that.
“We got Paul McGowan playing his first game for a number of weeks, we’ve got Martin Woods who has not trained in a team environment for five months before he came here.
“These boys are still getting up to speed, so the effort they put in was superb.”
Dundee are idle this weekend because of the Betfred Cup Final and that means the gap to one of the two teams immediately above them will have increased by the time Hamilton Accies come to Dens tomorrow week.
Saturday sees third-bottom Accies head for Paisley and a six-pointer against second-bottom St Mirren.
If the Buddies can make it two wins in a row, it would see Dundee going into next week’s clash five points adrift in last place.
Fans can get tickets for that and Sunday week’s Rangers clash for a cut-price £42.
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