Dundee’s hard work on the training pitch paid off at Motherwell.
But manager Tony Docherty isn’t satisfied – he’s already working to improve his team for the upcoming clash with St Johnstone.
The Dark Blues ended a run of six games without a win and moved back up the table to sixth spot thanks to Lyall Cameron’s winner at Fir Park.
Much of it was thanks to the mental strength of the squad insists Docherty.
“The performance gave me definite pride because it showed me the real character and the mentality of the squad,” the Dundee boss said.
“There’s no getting away from it, that was a difficult situation that we were in.
“The only way you get out of it is by hard work and we worked tirelessly.
“Some international breaks you can afford to just rest players and whatever, but we worked tirelessly on things that we had to get better at.
“And to see the players doing that, putting in the effort and then to see them exercising it, spoke volumes to me about the squad.
“It showed me about the mentality and the strength and the togetherness of them.
“Sometimes when you need to kind of reset it really kicks you on and I see a real strong mentality about them now.”
Changes pay off
Docherty made four changes to his team from the disastrous home defeat to Kilmarnock two weeks previously.
Trevor Carson, Fin Robertson, Ryan Astley and Scott Fraser all came in for their first Premiership starts of the season.
And the bold move paid off with a big performance.
“I’m delighted but not surprised at all,” he added.
“I see them on a daily basis and the hardest bit is picking a team because I see them all really contributing through the week in training and doing everything they can.
“And that’s what I’ll ask them, do everything they can as an individual to be ready to play a game on a Saturday. And then when the opportunity arises, take your opportunity.
“I think you’ve seen that on Saturday.
“There was so much good play. The narrative a wee bit was about digging in and keeping a clean sheet but I thought there was so much really good technical play.
“The only wee bit is we should have scored more goals.
“We got into good areas of the pitch. But, again, it’s something we’ll work on in training this week.
“That’s the Motherwell game put to bed and now it’s about St Johnstone and how can we get even better?
“We’ll do the same again, we’ll work tirelessly to make sure that we keep looking for those improvements as individuals and as a team and try and take that into this game.”
Team news
Jordan McGhee will return to training this week after his calf injury and is in contention for Saturday’s Premiership home clash with St Johnstone.
Scott Fraser should be OK for that, too, though Docherty admits he has to manage the midfielder after he limped off in the closing stages at Fir Park.
He added: “Scott is still with the physios but he’s fine. He’ll train this week. He just felt a wee issue with his groins.
“But it’s just where Scott is. The rest of the players have done a full pre-season and played 10 games before him. So he’s just getting up to speed.
“I was absolutely delighted with his contribution and we’ll manage him over this week.
“There’s going to be four games in two weeks coming up. So it’s just now all about managing players and using the squad.”
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