This can’t be a one-off we need to play like that in every match
Hartley warns his Dens heroes they can’t just turn it on against Rangers
PAUL HARTLEY insists Dundee can’t just keep their Sunday best for Rangers – and need to turn it on week in, week out.
The Dark Blues boss knows the fans will lap up yesterday’s historic home win as much as their last over the Ibrox side almost a quarter of a century ago.
Hartley was an S-form signing at Hibs when a Billy Dodds double and goals from Ivo Den Bieman and Ian Gilzean secured a 4-3 victory for Simon Stainrod’s side in August 1992.
But he warned his players they really need to push on as goals from Mark O’Hara and Kevin Holt ended this year’s winless run in style against a lacklustre Gers side who replied through Joe Garner.
Hartley, whose side move into the top six, said: “The challenge for us is that can’t be a one-off because it’s Rangers. We have to be like that every day.
“The top six is tight, we’re all jostling to get in there, we’ll be looking over our shoulders.
“Next week can’t be different against Motherwell. That’s the level we have to take into the next few weeks. The players need to know it’s not a one-off. It will be hard work again on Tuesday.
“I remember the game in 1992 and the supporters will remember this just as fondly.
“It’s not often you beat Rangers or Celtic. We were underdogs but always knew we had a chance if we could put that performance in. It could have been more.
“We had good opportunities to score more goals. But to get a win against Rangers, the first since 1992 here, it has been a long time coming.
“The fans will be really happy with the win and the way we played. It was a real team performance, how we performed and the way we went about it.
“Our attitude, pressing, it was outstanding. It does take us into the top six but it’s about the manner of the win.
“We know we’ve got that in us. Consistency has been our problem. We changed our shape, pressed Rangers all over the pitch, as we were determined not to let them settle. We played a high press.
“I never thought we were in danger, even when they scored, because that came from the one time we didn’t press properly. We were on the front foot from the off, in their face, we gave them no time to play.
“Their good players didn’t perform because of the way we went about our business. We were never in trouble.”
Hartley insisted the result and performance was particularly pleasing because his young guns stood up to the challenge.
He said: “We’re quite a young team, only one player is 30, with a lot in their early 20s.
“Young Mark O’Hara started the season really well and had an injury. We changed his position to the right-hand side and he has adapted really well.
“Every player hit top form for us. Rangers build from the back and we didn’t let them do that.
“Even the two strikers, who didn’t score, they worked so hard
today just to close them down right from the off.”
Opening scorer O’Hara, who wasn’t born until three years after that 1992 victory over Gers, has urged his team-mates to push on and make sure a place in the top six is theirs come the split.
He said: “I wasn’t aware it was so long since Dundee had won against Rangers at home. It is some achievement.
“It is a massive result. I don’t know if many people would have had us down to win before it. It is absolutely huge.”
O’Hara also scored when Gers won 2-1 at Dens Park earlier in the season. And the former Kilmarnock midfielder added: “Two starts, two goals against Rangers – it’s not a bad ratio.
“I saw the goal coming. The ball came in and I took a wee moment to compose myself and just make sure I hit the target. Thankfully it went in. I was delighted. It was my first goal with my left foot.
“To win a game on the TV shows the public what we are like and what we are about. We are not often on TV. Hopefully teams will start fearing us now.
“They are a big club and it is always going to be a difficult game against Rangers. Their current situation isn’t ideal for them. But it was more to do with us than anything they did.
“It was a hard shift. After 60 or 70 minutes I looked at the clock and thought: ‘I’ve got no chance of making the end of this.’ But I then got a bit of a second wind.
“We showed out there that we are all hungry and the players are all out there fighting for each other.
“If we want to be in that top-six slot it’s something we need to do every week.
“At the start of the week the manager told us that we should have a right go, that it’s not about Rangers, it is all about us. That is what we have been working on all week, pressing them higher up the pitch, and it worked.”
Rangers responded to the last Dens Park defeat by going on a 44-game unbeaten run.
But it’s safe to say the current Light Blues side won’t show a similar reaction to yesterday’s loss. Certainly not on the evidence of the display they turned in.
After being edged out in that seven-goal thriller 25 years ago it wasn’t until the following March – a run that almost took them to the Champions League Final – that they tasted defeat against Celtic at Parkhead.
Without a permanent manager and trailing Aberdeen by six points in the fight for second spot caretaker boss Graeme Murty says his big players must step up.
They face a trip to Inverness on Friday and a daunting clash at Parkhead next month.
Murty, who has stepped in following Mark Warburton’s departure, said: “There are more than enough characters in the squad to turn it around. We just need them to come to the fore.”