After a week of “soul searching” Dundee showed at Aberdeen that they have the fight in them to stay in the Premiership, according to Darren O’Dea.
Questions were asked of the players from outside the dressing room and, perhaps more importantly, from within it in the wake of their capitulation against St Johnstone.
But, even though they lost narrowly to the Dons, O’Dea believes their display on a “horrific” Pittodrie playing surface was cause for optimism when the season resumes after the international break.
“Last week there was a little bit of soul searching,” said O’Dea, who was recalled to the starting line-up.
“I said before the game this Pittodrie pitch was perfect for us because it would be a test of our mettle and to see how much we wanted it.
“It was a fight and we reacted really well.
“There is no doubt every player is behind what we are trying to do and we’ve shown we have good quality.
“Hopefully when we are on better playing surfaces we can show that and our qualities and I think that will be enough.”
The former Republic of Ireland international added: “That pitch out there is a disgrace. It is horrific and it is horrific for Aberdeen as well.
“They are a very good side and so it must be frustrating for them. It is the worst I have played on for a long while.
“We played the conditions and so did they – that’s football.
“Playing on it was about character and not quality. We knew it would be a fight.
“One look at the pitch and we knew it was common sense football – you couldn’t play as we like to do.
“It wasn’t about how good you can be on the ball – it was about grinding out a performance.
“We conceded a poor goal and came off the wrong end of the scoreline but the reaction to last week was very good.
“We had a big chance and we conceded a sloppy goal and that was probably it in the game.”
The game could indeed be summed up by the missed chance on the half-hour O’Dea referred to and the sloppy goal that followed it five minutes later.
A-Jay Leitch-Smith was the culprit at one end – failing to find the net when he was one v one against Aberdeen keeper Freddie Woodman. And Elliott Parish was at fault at the other – coming for a ball he shouldn’t have, wiping out Steven Caulker and allowing Graeme Shinnie a simple finish.
O’Dea isn’t panicking about Dundee’s position in the league – still three points above Partick Thistle and now six clear of Ross County.
“You are always a couple of results from going one way or the other,” said the former Celtic man. “This league is like that.
“You win a couple, you are comfortable and then you lose a couple and you are right back in it.
“We are at a stage where we need a couple of results.
“We are going to be going into the split with some important games to play.
“But before that, we have three massive games coming up after this break. We will get back to work and to get ready for Hearts.
“I genuinely don’t worry about the league.
“We have beaten Hearts and Rangers. We go into those games confident because we know how to play against them. We know how to win.
“We could be sitting here in a couple of weeks’ time feeling comfortable again.
“You just need to keep your head down, pick up as many points as possible and hopefully that will be enough.”
Dundee boss Neil McCann reflected: “You could see that the boys gave everything in terms of application – they emptied in terms of putting the effort in.
“Sometimes you have to play a bit of percentage football so we went longer than we’ve ever done and that was just because it was impossible to play neat football.
“We had a golden opportunity to take the lead but I didn’t think it would sit for A-Jay at all. It was bumping around. Whether it was a good save or a poor finish from him, I couldn’t say until I see it again.
“We’ve got a habit of passing up real chances and then giving away poor goals and it was another example of that today.
“The most pleasing thing for me was that the application was back but if you don’t take chances and you cough up cheap goals, you get nothing.
“We’ll take a couple of days off and when we get them back in, we’ve got time on the training ground to get ready for Hearts.”
