Graham Bayne insists no-one inside the Dens Park dressing-room is about to start playing the blame game.
Instead, the Dundee players are determined to stick together to turn around a disappointing start to the league campaign, which continued on Saturday against Morton.
The Dark Blues lost the match thanks to Peter MacDonald’s early strike as he reacted fastest after Rab Douglas had made an outstanding save from an Andy Jackson shot.
The defeat also ended a proud unbeaten league record stretching back to January 2010, and leaves the pre-season first division title favourites sitting second bottom of the table.
Bayne maintains it is still too early to push the panic button as manager Barry Smith moulds his new-look side.
He said: “That was a very sore one to take. The first goal is often crucial and it was a particularly bad one to lose.
“I think a lot of teams who come to Dens this season will be just happy to sit in and it makes it doubly hard for us when they nick the first goal.
“But we still have to be better, move the ball a lot quicker and be sharper. We also need to create more chances with a bit more penetration.
“It is frustrating but we just have to stick together as a team. The worst thing you can do when you are not playing well is to start saying things like ‘the defenders are losing goals’, ‘the strikers are not scoring’ or ‘the midfield is not creating’.
“That is just going to lead to more and more problems.”
He added: “To put things in perspective, we have only played four league games. Admittedly, they have been largely disappointing but we want to be better and we know we can be.
“Thankfully from our point of view, no side has stretched away yet which doesn’t surprise me at all in this division. It can be top against bottom but there is no sure-fire thing in this league.”
The Dundee players may be refusing to resort to recriminations but there was no shortage of fans queuing up to point their fingers at who they believe is to blame for the faltering start.
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Centre-halves Rhys Weston and Craig McKeown in particular were the target of a lot of displeasure after they were given a torrid time by the Morton front pairing of MacDonald and Jackson.
But it would be fair to say the entire Dundee side look short of confidence at the moment, with their ponderous build-up play lacking any great wit or invention.
Admittedly, they did have chances to at least salvage a draw on Saturday but Morton keeper Colin Stewart pulled off a string of outstanding saves from Gary Irvine, Ryan Conroy and Leighton McIntosh.
However, there is no doubt that Dundee are struggling.
Bayne has pleaded for the fans to be give the squad time to gel.
He said: “Expectations are high and that can make people a little bit more uptight. We have lost big players and it is going to take time for the lads who were here previously to adapt to the ones who have come in.
“We have had a lot of goals taken out of the side following the departures of Gary Harkins, Craig Forsyth and Sean Higgins.
“So we just have to keep working hard and hopefully things will turn around soon.”
Morton’s win propelled them to second top of the league but hit-man MacDonald insists everyone at the club is keeping their feet firmly on the ground.
He said: “It wasn’t a brilliant performance but we battled and Colin Stewart was excellent.”