Dundee boss Barry Smith has praised club captain Rhys Weston for remaining patient as he waited to force his way back into the side.
The Welsh defender lost his place to Neil McGregor after picking up a hamstring injury and, even after he recovered, he was forced to sit on the sidelines as Smith continued to prefer the former Dunfermline centre-half.
But Weston finally made his first league start since August 27 for the Dark Blues on Saturday against Ayr and capped a solid defensive display with a goal in the morale-boosting 3-1 victory.
Smith said: ”Rhys has sat and waited his turn to get back in. Initially, he was out through injury but he has been patient and he came in and did well.
”He scored and we always want to get goals from other parts of the team but knowing Rhys, he will be more pleased that he has defended well.”
Smith also declared himself satisfied with the display of midfielder Gavin Rae, with the former Scotland man playing his first full 90 minutes since returning to Dens for his second stint at the club.
He said: ”Gavin takes good care of himself and is really fit. He played games in pre-season and he slotted in without any problem. It was good for him to get 90 minutes and he will just keep getting sharper.”
Prior to Saturday’s victory at Somerset Park, Dundee had gone four games without a league win. So when Ayr pulled a goal back to make it 2-1 with seven minutes remaining, Smith could have been forgiven for ”shutting up shop”.
However, he had other ideas.
”I have complete confidence in the players,” he said. “When it went to 2-1, we never made any substitutions. We didn’t go negative or put on another defender because I felt the team had created a lot of chances during the game and I thought we would carve out more before the end and thankfully we did.”
He added: ”It was great to get three goals in one game. We have been creating a lot of chances in other matches without scoring them so it was good to get our reward on Saturday.
”We will just have to keep on doing what we have been doing and carry on taking chances and defending properly. Three points is three points but our home record this season is not nearly good enough and we need to start winning at Dens.”
Meanwhile, Dundee will be in the hat for the draw for the third round of the Scottish Cup which takes place today at 11am at Musselburgh racecourse.