Dundee midfielder Nicky Riley believes the players have laid down a marker for the rest of the season after matching top flight Inverness for long spells in Tuesday’s League Cup clash.
The 27-year-old winger was named man of the match in the midweek loss to Caley.
However, Riley reckons the fact visiting boss Terry Butcher felt his side were fortunate to go through at Dundee’s expense was particularly telling about the Dark Blues’ own performance.
It was a far cry from the frustration fans felt in Falkirk on Saturday, when the team slumped to a 3-1 defeat in the Championship and Riley believes Tuesday night’s game merely demonstrated what Dundee are truly capable of this term.
“The performance was obviously better than Saturday and we wanted a reaction from Saturday for the fans and most of all, the manager,” he said.
“Everyone knows it was disappointing on Saturday and knows the performance from the players wasn’t good enough.
“So we knew Tuesday night was a big opportunity and Inverness have obviously been going well, so it was a big game for us to go into.
“We came away with another defeat but we’ve got to take the positives from what was a good performance.”
Dundee may head into the weekend’s league fixtures with renewed confidence but they still find themselves in fourth and eight points adrift of league leaders Hamilton, although they will be hoping to notch another mark in the win column when Morton visit Dens Park on Saturday.
Having said that, the Cappielow outfit will head east full of confidence after sending Scottish champions Celtic out of the League Cup on Tuesday night.
Riley said: “They’ve not had great results in the league either so that result against Celtic is going to give them great confidence we know that.
“If we play like we played against Inverness then hopefully we can get the three points we need.”