Dundee boss Mark McGhee says his side won’t get “carried away” after an impressive showing at Celtic.
McGhee only took charge of the side on Thursday but will oversee his second game on Wednesday night against St Mirren.
A late goal at Parkhead consigned Dundee to their 15th league defeat of the season.
The Dark Blues looked hard to beat on Sunday and were minutes away from earning a much-needed point until the Hoops pounced in the dying moments.
Even though they conceded three the Dark Blues defence looked steady and hard to break down against a ruthless Celtic side.
Defending as a team
That was one of the positives for McGhee who is now backing his players to continue to better the transition from defensive into attack, starting against the Buddies.
“I have looked at [the Celtic game] but I don’t think it has to be an appetite to defend individually,” he said.
“It is more about understanding what we can do when we defend well and then how can we attack.
“It is a team. It is a joined-up thing that will make us a better team defensively.
“It is about what the two strikers do and what the midfield do to protect the defence and then how the back line protects the goalkeeper.
“It is a team thing more than an individual thing.
“There has never been any question over these boys individually; they just need to be organised in a slightly different way, to make us harder to beat.”
Clean sheet against St Mirren
McGhee is impressed by what he has seen from his players but, with a short space of time between his first two games in charge, he admits they haven’t had a lot of time to fully implement their plan.
“Some things need to be instilled and then they can work on things week in week out and they become part of their fabric,” he said.
“What we are giving them just now is stuff to take into the games.
“We can’t cure everything in three or four days.
“The fact it is a game in hand it is an opportunity.
“We are not going to get carried away with a reasonable performance on Sunday.
“We’re looking at a situation where we are bottom of the league and we have the worst goals against record in the league.
“We need to turn things around and that means to stop leaking goals.
“Where it takes us to in terms of results we will see but it is a performance and clean sheet we are looking for.”
