O’Dea: Dee will show fight needed to stay up

“Whatever anybody said about us after l ast Friday’s performance against Aberdeen, I don’t think anyone said anything harsher than the things we said to ourselves. We questioned ourselves.

“But on Tuesday the fight was there, the desire and the spirit.

“These things should never been in question in football but sometimes they are, and it was important we showed them.

“We should have come down the road from Ross County with at least a point but we didn’t and we move on. We have to go and prepare for the next game.”

To say the past month and a bit has been difficult for O’Dea and his team-mates is an understatement.

Five defeats in a row, 14 goals conceded and just two scored has sapped morale and confidence.

He, though, believes the spirit displayed up north shows Dundee can halt the slide and be safe come the end of the season.

“We are going to be in the bottom half, so six of our last seven games are going to be against bottom-six teams because we have Hamilton as well as Hearts before the split.

“If you look through those teams they are much the same and everyone is fighting. The bare minimum is that we match the fight the rest show.

“If we do, then I definitely believe we are good enough to be winning the games we need.

“It’s not going to be about nice football and performances don’t matter, only results do.”

Mark O’Hara is adjudged to have brought down Michael Gardyne in the box, resulting in a controversial spot-kick winner for the Staggies.