Dundee skipper Darren O’Dea is in full agreement with boss Paul Hartley’s assertion that the Dark Blues are a “Jekyll and Hyde” side.
The Dens manager made the comment following his team’s desperately disappointing defeat and display against St Johnstone at McDiarmid Park on Saturday.
Dundee never recovered from the loss of two early goals with O’Dea candidly confessing that they were completely outfought by Saints.
However, with a match against Celtic looming large on the horizon on Sunday at Dens, the players simply have to pick themselves up.
O’Dea said: “Yes, the manager’s right. When you go from the high of beating Rangers at home and then even better against Motherwell . . .
“We are a strange team at times. The worst thing as a manager is when you don’t know what you are going to get and that’s not good enough.
“It’s nothing to do with effort or desire but anyone who is surprised that they were going to get a tough game here needs a reality check.
“It is always difficult here as they are a very good team. They know exactly what they are doing.
“We were off it and got punished for it.
“Sometimes when you come off the pitch and you have been beaten you can accept it a little bit if you have been outplayed.
“But we were outfought and that’s hard to take.
“If you have competed to your best ability and are beaten by good play . . . but we were beaten because we weren’t ready for a fight and they were.
“Look, we have a couple of tough games coming up but in a strange way it might be good for us to play against two good footballing teams in Celtic and Aberdeen.
“So we need to pick up quickly and cannot feel sorry for ourselves as these are top teams.”
