Dundee’s weekend win over St Johnstone was a big step towards Premiership survival, but fit-again attacker Craig Wighton insists the post-split fixtures are about more than just staying up.
The 20-year-old has revealed the Dark Blues are treating the five games as a mini-league they want to win.
“We’ve said we wanted to win the five games after the split and that’s one out of the way,” he said.
“It’s a mini-league and we want to win it. We want to win every game and Saturday against St Johnstone was a great start but we can’t dwell on it for too long because it’s done now.
“Now we are looking ahead, we are looking to Motherwell on Saturday and preparing for that one.”
And Wighton feels Neil McCann’s team have the quality and commitment to run up what would easily be a best winning sequence of the campaign.
He believes Dundee were well worth their win over Saints and when it comes to character, he reckons the way he and his team-mates reacted to losing a late equaliser before edging ahead again right at the death, shows they have plenty.
“I think you saw how together everyone is. When they go one-all late on, a lot of teams would maybe crumble a wee bit and you might have expected it would have been St Johnstone that got the winner.
“We didn’t and went for the winner and got it. That shows we wanted to win it and that everyone here is going in the same direction and pulling for each other.”
He’s also of the opinion that win, plus the recent impressive displays in draws against Hearts and Celtic, vindicates the way gaffer Neil has been getting Dundee to play this season.
He conceded results have not always matched the quality of football produced but believes the fact they are coming now bodes well for the future.
“People will say it’s making excuses, but we’ve been unlucky this season, the way we play our football and the way the manager is trying to get us to play.
“A lot of the performances, we’ve not got points when we should have. Even so, we’ve never changed the way we play and we still try to play football.
“You could see that against St Johnstone, it was a big game but we still tried to play the right way and I think the fans appreciate that.
“At the same time, it is all about getting results and we need to combine that with the good football we play. I think Saturday was an example of that.”
After just over half-an-hour of first-team action as a sub in recent clashes against the Old Firm as he made his comeback from major knee surgery last summer, the Saints game saw him get a first 90 minutes for over a year.
He was delighted with the way his fitness held up and is looking for a strong personal finish to the campaign and in a role just behind the strikers he relishes.
“I played a few games for the U/20s, but that’s obviously totally different. In terms of the first team it is over a year since I’ve done it and I have rarely played 90 minutes at that level anyway.
“When I saw the sub coming on late on I thought that was me but I was delighted to be staying on. I felt a wee bit leggy towards the end but I didn’t cramp up — when I went down near the end it was because I got a kick.
“I enjoy playing where I was and that’s probably my best position. We changed things a wee bit and I went out on the left, but I got some joy there as well.
“Maybe I would have liked a bit more of the ball, but my first full game back, it was about getting through it and the main thing was to get three points and we were delighted about that.”
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