Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Dundee are good enough for Premiership, insists Tony Docherty

Dark Blues boss is trying to instil belief in his players.

Dundee boss Tony Docherty at full time. Image: SNS
Dundee boss Tony Docherty applauds fans at Dens Park. Image: SNS

Tony Docherty insists Dundee are good enough for the Premiership – and he’s been hammering home that message to his players.

The Dark Blues have taken one point from their first two games back in the top tier, drawing 1-1 on opening day against Motherwell at Dens and then losing 2-1 to St Mirren in Paisley on Saturday.

Dundee have fallen behind in both of those matches with Docherty urging his players to start taking games by the scruff of the neck early on.

And the manager admits it is also part of his job to instil belief in a squad that contains several playing in the Premiership for the first time.

Dundee boss Tony Docherty in the dugout at St Mirren. Image: David Young/Shutterstock
Dundee boss Tony Docherty encourages his players from the dugout at St Mirren. Image: David Young/Shutterstock

Docherty said: “Yes, we always do that on a Monday when we analyse the game.

“That’s exactly what we have done again, just instilling that belief, to say they are good enough.

“They need to believe they are good enough, to be on the front foot and not wait to have a look at the opposition to go on the front foot.

“We have to go on the front foot first and that’s something we will be doing this week again, trying to instil that into the players to ensure we carry more belief going into games.”

Dundee had a chance to equalise at 1-0 against St Mirren but Zach Robinson’s penalty was saved with the Dark Blues also passing up other opportunities.

Now, Docherty is urging his players to be more clinical when those chances arise.

The 52-year-old added: “I think you need to give credit to St Mirren, they were very good in the first half.

“I thought that when we got to grips with it with the change of shape, we then became the dominant team in the game.

“But we then got ourselves opportunities to go and capitalise and we never took them.

“That is something we need to learn from – game to game that when opportunities present themselves, you need to be clinical in this league.

“Yes, we probably needed to start the game better but once we got a foothold in the second half and even in the first half with the missed penalty opportunity, we needed to take these chances.”

Conversation