Tony Docherty has hit back at “wholly inaccurate and unfair” comments made about Dundee in recent weeks.
The Dark Blues have come in for heavy criticism of late due to the state of the Dens Park pitch and last week’s postponement of their league clash with Rangers.
That match will now take place on Wednesday evening at Dens after a Tuesday pitch inspection ruled the surface good to go.
It took two pitch inspections to get the game against Motherwell on last weekend.
Ahead of that game, Steelmen boss Stuart Kettlewell took to the radio waves to make his feelings known about the situation.
He said: “Motherwell realised in 2022 they had a problem and spent £1.25 million on the pitch.
“I feel strongly on this because when you invest that money, it comes out of my player budget.
“So what then starts to happen is clubs can pay more, I could give you specific examples where they offer more money for certain players.
“And that can come about because you don’t invest that money in your infrastructure and pitch.
“I know some people will disagree and come up with excuses.
“But we are all well-educated people and we can all see that’s the case here.”
‘Wholly inaccurate and unfair’
Dundee boss Docherty, however, insists those comments did “a disservice” to the work done to make the Dark Blues a top-six side.
And he said the remarks, repeated by several other critics of the club, were wide of the mark.
“To imply money has gone into the squad instead of the pitch is wholly inaccurate and unfair,” Docherty hit back.
“People who have said that should know better, in my opinion.
“It does a real disservice to the squad and the staff for the work that has gone in here.
“The reality is, we are punching four or five places above our weight in this league and that has been down to hard work.
“That’s hard work from the staff and the players.
“We had to build from scratch in the summer, we had three signed players.
“We built a squad and built a staff, then improved along the way.
“So for people to imply what they have is inaccurate and unfair. It does a disservice to the football department.”
‘Laser focus’
After securing their top-six berth at Aberdeen on Saturday, Dundee’s attention turned to the re-arranged match with Rangers this midweek.
After some doubt over the venue – St Johnstone’s McDiarmid Park was teed up as a backup option – Docherty is pleased to get the match on at Dens Park.
He added: “We are delighted the game has been confirmed at Dens so we’re very much looking forward to it now.
“We are in a good place after confirming our top-six place and getting the job done.
“There had been real disruption to our preparation before the Aberdeen game but we were laser-focused on that huge game.
“Credit to the players, they were focused on what we had to do and got it done.
“We want to continue that feelgood factor from the weekend.”
Dundee have no fresh injury worries with Owen Beck the only absentee for Wednesday’s game.
Mexican striker Diego Pineda returned to training this week while goalkeeper Trevor Carson is also available.
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