It is a fresh day, a new game and another chance for Dundee to show us their best.
Too often they’ve shown their worst and Saturday’s performance against Livingston was right up there in all my time in this city.
And I covered the 7-0 home defeat to Aberdeen as well.
But what we have seen from this Dundee squad is an incredible ability to shake off poor days and poor runs.
The old ‘bouncebackability’ term coined by Iain Dowie a few years back seems to written in the very fibre of these Dens players.
However, this moment in the season will be their toughest test yet.
Lowest ebb
Expectation from the stands is at an all-time low, the club is bottom of the league and have just been spanked at home by the team in ninth.
There’s a lot of space for bouncing back because the club is at its lowest ebb for a long time.
This squad have previous – this time last season Dundee were on a four-match winless run in the Championship, they were fifth and had just scraped a draw at eighth-placed Morton.
Things were not going well but they somehow sorted themselves out and started the run that eventually saw them promoted.
Then the other home humiliation to a rival in the standings, Ross County, was followed up by a 1-0 win at St Mirren.
Tonight’s match against Hibs, though, feels even bigger than all those put together.
Vitriol
Dundee just have to show some fight, there’s nothing else for it.
There was none of that against Livingston.
With everything else going on, mis-management of the managerial change and an unpopular appointment in Mark McGhee, fans more than made their feelings known.
That anger and a fair amount of vitriol comes from a desire to see Dundee do well, nothing else.
It’s up to the players – and no one else – to harness that energy from the stands and use it for their benefit.
And they have to do it tonight.
Oomph
Because beyond the anger comes apathy and punters not turning up.
That doesn’t help a side trying to avoid relegation.
There were plenty who stayed right to the final whistle on Saturday and huge credit to all of them.
There’s real loyalty there, I’m not sure I’d have been able to had I been in their shoes.
A change in manager at this point in the season is supposed to rally the troops, get fans onside and give the players some oomph.
𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙂𝙖𝙛𝙛𝙚𝙧.#InItTogether pic.twitter.com/A2rgcJJdOe
— Queen of the South (@OfficialQosFC) February 27, 2022
My team Queen of the South are bottom of the Championship and have just changed manager.
I’m not a big fan of the decision-makers at Palmerston either but the installment of Wullie Gibson as player-manager has galvanised the whole club.
We actually think we might stay up now.
Dundee’s poorly-timed attempt has done the opposite and instead has set fans against the club.
The only people who can right that just now are the players – they have to show
the fans there is yet life in them and this season.
And they have to show that tonight.
