“Thrive in adversity” was a phrase made to measure for Dundee last season.
He added: “Although a lot of players left we”ve kept a nucleus of the squad from last season.
“We”ve had to change our style because we don”t have attributes that certain players who are gone brought to the team, but you have to try and use the attributes of the players you do have.
“We”ve got to bounce back from that and show some character. It probably couldn”t get any tougher than Hamilton away for our next game but we have to rise to the challenge.”
Dundee captain O”Donnell was sent off on 28 minutes for a second booking, after referee Crawford Allan deemed his aerial challenge on Allan Walker in the centre circle to be a deliberate elbow.
Up until then the visitors had enjoyed the best of the match.
O”Donnell came close with a diving header and Ryan Conroy blazed over the bar.
The most sustained pressure on either goal followed the sending-off and, as expected, it was from Raith.
Brian Graham forced two fine saves out of Rab Douglas and John Baird narrowly missed the target but, frustratingly for the hosts, it wouldn”t have made much difference had the half-time whistle been the full-time one, so few opportunities did they create in the second 45.
McGlynn said: “It was set up for us to go on and win after dominating the last 15 minutes of the first half, but Dundee set up well with two banks of four and denied us space to play. That”s what you do when you”re down to 10 men. It”s understandable.
“Then they get a corner near the end and all of a sudden we”ve lost a game of football.”
He added: “We didn”t show enough character, desire and sharpness to get in positions to get a strike on goal or to get in front of the goalkeeper. We played into their hands.”
Being plunged into administration, deducted 25 points and reduced to a threadbare squad were all overcome by the Dens Park club to ensure first division survival.
Barry Smith”s men had made a slow start to the new term, but they tapped into a bit of the ‘us against the world” spirit of the previous campaign to achieve their best result so far against Raith on Saurday.
They had to play for over an hour with 10 men as a result of skipper Stephen O”Donnell”s red card. Not only did they hold on, but they also came up with a late winner from Nicky Riley.
Now the goalscorer is hoping that their victory in Fife will provide the platform for a promotion push.
Riley, whose 86th-minute strike was a drilled right-footer after a corner broke to him on the 18 yard line, said: “Losing a man made it so much harder because we knew Raith would have a lot of the ball.
“They put a lot of balls into our box but we defended brilliantly and didn”t really give them many clear-cut chances.”
He added: “Hopefully a result like that can kickstart our season. Getting a win here in any circumstances would be brilliant but to do it after going down to 10 men so early makes it even better.”
A lot of managers will attribute patchy early-season form to a new team taking time to gel but Raith boss John McGlynn isn”t one of them.
McGlynn expected better from his side against Dundee’s 10 men and the fact it was only their fifth league game of the season after a summer of cost-cutting and rebuilding doesn”t come into the equation.
McGlynn said: “I”m not into this excuse about a team taking time to bed in. We might have a tight squad, but it”s a matter of rolling our sleeves up and working harder for each other.”
Continued…