Dundee captain Darren O’Dea has declared there will be no let-up in their play despite their Premiership status being all but secured.
Interim manager Neil McCann didn’t get the win he craved in his first home game in charge of Dundee on Saturday but his team still crept closer to safety.
It was actually a decent day for McCann and his players, with the 1-1 draw against the Staggies at Dens moving them five points clear of second-bottom Hamilton with two matches to play.
Indeed, should Accies fail to win against County in Dingwall tomorrow night then the Dark Blues will take the field against Inverness Caley Thistle at Dens on Wednesday knowing they will definitely be playing Premiership football next season because they can’t finish any worse than 10th.
Nevertheless, O’Dea has vowed to keep powering on until the final kick of the ball away to Hamilton on Saturday.
The Irishman, whose 76th-minute penalty levelled the game after Liam Boyce had given County an early lead, said: “One thing the manager said when he came in was he wanted to win all the games.
“So we are disappointed that we didn’t win this one.
“However, there is also realism to it, in knowing that we played well in large, large spells of the game.
“We will be back in on Monday and there is no let-up now.
“I think it is important that that is how we think here for the future.
“There can be no let-up and it’s not about two wins then a pat on the back.
“That has maybe been the way of all the teams – that they have won a couple then took their foot off the gas.
“We are not going to do that and hopefully on Wednesday we can see a similar performance but a better result.”
O’Dea was non-committal when asked about the possibility of McCann staying in charge beyond the current arrangement.
He said: “I don’t know. Your guess is as good as mine.
“No player is playing for the manager – they are playing for the club.
“Whoever is in charge, you are playing for the club.
“You represent the club and I don’t care who is in charge, as long as every player when they are here gives 100% and that’s certainly the case right now.”
The McCann factor added a few fans to the gate on Saturday, with an excellent crowd of 6,812 inside Dens and only a couple of hundred of those hailing from the Highlands.
O’Dea paid tribute to the Dundee supporters for turning out in such fine numbers.
He added: “It was great.
“We were aware before the game that there was going to be a big crowd.
“We talked about it and we wanted to start the game strongly to bring them behind us.
“It didn’t happen that way but the crowd stuck with us and we finished strongly.”
