After a bruising week, Dundee need to remember what got them to the Scottish Cup last 16 says manager Tony Docherty ahead of their home clash with Airdrie.
The Dark Blues form took a surprise nosedive after defeating Dundee United in a derby at Dens just last month.
That morale-boosting 1-0 win was followed by a shock 6-0 home defeat to Hearts and then the same scoreline at Celtic on Wednesday.
Now they are aiming to put a nightmare few days behind them by booking a spot in the quarter-finals against Championship side Airdrieonians.
“The thing I love about this group is they lift themselves,” Docherty said about the reaction from his squad since Wednesday’s thumping at Parkhead.
“We came in on Thursday as planned, it wasn’t a punishment, but there is an honesty and a realisation by everybody.
“Because we’re all in it together, staff and players.
“And we addressed a lot of issues that we had to.
“Then it’s just full focus on the cup game because it’s a huge objective.
“We’re laser-focused on the Scottish Cup tie.
“The amount of effort that the players put in and the level of performance we put in to win a derby, to give us this opportunity, we need to use that.
“We need to use that to fuel our motivation.
“We’ve got ourselves in this position and we need to make the most of it.
“That derby win was only a couple of weeks ago.
“I want to get the performances at Dens back to that.
“I want to have the performance we had in both Old Firm games we had at Dens.
“I want the performance levels of when we beat Hibs 4-1, when we beat Motherwell 4-1.
“And more than that, I want us to try and get as close to the atmosphere that was generated by the crowd in all these fixtures.
“That’s the Dens Park I want.”
Lyall Cameron and striker doubt
Docherty expects to have key man Lyall Cameron back available after he missed the trip to the champions.
And he revealed the Scotland U/21 star shouldn’t have played in the Hearts game last weekend.
There is also a doubt over striker Seb Palmer-Houlden.
Asked about team news, Docherty replied: “Joe Shaughnessy is back in the squad.
“Seb Palmer-Houlden has a wee knock but we’ll monitor that and see if he’s OK. He picked it up against Celtic.
“The only ones out are Scotty Fraser and Billy Koumetio, who are both making good progress at the moment.
“Lyall Cameron is good.
“We had to make that decision on Wednesday. He probably shouldn’t have played last Saturday.
“When you look back at his performance, he wasn’t Lyall which was down to the injury.
“But we’ve watched him train the last couple of days and listened to him. He feels he’s fit and available.”
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