Tony Docherty insists it’s time for Dundee to deliver as he set his sights on a crunch set of games before the split.
The Dark Blues are currently sitting just four points behind sixth-placed Motherwell in the Premiership table but are also only one point ahead of Ross County in the relegation play-off spot.
In their last four league games, Dundee have played Rangers, Hearts and Celtic twice.
Now, with those tough tests out of the way, Docherty is determined his side will kick on again in the league and secure their main objective for the season – Premiership survival.
The manager said: “I think we’re going into a run of fixtures now we can really target.
“Getting through those really tough fixtures, I was just looking to stay in touch with the pack.
“And we’ve managed to do that despite adversity because of injuries we had in that period.
“We’re still in a position where we’re in touch and now we’re playing the teams around about us.
“There are only eight fixtures to go to the split, so now it’s time to deliver.
“There’s competition for places on a daily basis to make sure everybody’s doing all they can in that final push.”
Docherty added: “Our objective every season is to maintain our Premiership survival and nothing has changed there.
“It’s also about seeing how well you can do in both cup competitions and then when you achieve an objective, you look further than that.
“It’s still very tight so it’s really important you just focus on every game.”
Dundee will kick off their remaining pre-split fixtures with Saturday’s clash against Aberdeen at Dens.
The Dons brought in six new players during the January transfer window but Docherty insists his team know what to expect.
He added: “We’ve done our homework on most of their last games.
“We’re doing analysis on them as well and we know there’s different players in the building for them.
“But for me, I can’t affect Aberdeen’s formation or style of play. I can look at it all, but all I can affect is my own team’s performance.
“As a staff we will try to make sure we come up with a game plan that can hopefully negate any strengths they’ve got, and exploit some of their weaknesses.”
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