Gowser: Talk time to roll up

“WE sit here and can say the same thing over and over in the press — ‘we need to do this, we need to do that’ — but it’s about time we started rolling up our sleeves and showing it.”

Paul McGowan might just have extended his stay at Dundee by at least another year but that doesn’t mean he’s happy with how things are going on the pitch at Dens Park.

A miserable run of just two wins from their eight Premiership games since the turn of the year and six defeats in seven in all competitions has seen the Dark Blues plunge into a battle to avoid the drop.

A 4-0 home loss to St Johnstone rammed that home a couple of weeks back before an improvement in performance against Aberdeen before the international break also, disappointingly, ended in a reverse.

And, for McGowan, allowing their start-of-season target of a top-six finish to slip away is a huge frustration.

However, he concedes they only have themselves to blame.

“Top six was the aim at the start of the season,” he said.

“I always felt it was ‘do-able’. I felt the players we brought in, we could have got in there, it was well within our grasp.

“However, you can play nice football but, if you don’t match that with fight and aggression in this league, you’ll get turned over.

“I don’t think we’ve done that enough.

“I think we’ve played unbelievable football some games but other games we’ve not turned up at all and that’s the frustrating thing.

“I think that’s annoying for the manager as well because he knows how good we can be but, when we think we’re turning the corner, we put in a performance like the St Johnstone game.

“It must be so frustrating for the fans and everybody else.

“We sit and say the same thing over and over in the press ‘we need to do this, we need to do that’ but it’s about time we started rolling up our sleeves and showing it.

“Talk is cheap, it’s about starting to do it as individuals, producing as a team week in, week out.”

The fixture list hasn’t exactly been kind to Dundee either, with a massive week before the split where they face Hearts at home on Sunday before trips

Paul McGowan and Dundee face Hearts at home this Sunday. Paul McGowan, who signed a contract extension with Dundee last week, has