Dee giving away killing campaign

WINGER Declan McDaid says Dundee need to start giving themselves a chance in games if they are to get anywhere near their ambitions of promotion.

The Dark Blues have only the league to concentrate on now after being brushed aside by Motherwell in Saturday’s Scottish Cup tie at Dens Park.

For McDaid, that 3-0 defeat was another example of Dundee not helping themselves by giving away “rubbish goals”.

He told the Tele: “Motherwell are a good team, third in the Premiership, but we won’t give ourselves a chance giving away goals like that.

“We need to keep ourselves in the game and then try to create chances like we did in the second half.

“We conceded rubbish goals – yeah, they are a good team but we made it easy for them.

“Teams don’t have to work for their goals against us.

“We go behind and then it’s obviously harder – we need to give ourselves a chance by starting games right.”

The Dens men trailed 2-0 at the break after a brace from ’Well striker Chris Long.

They improved in the second period but couldn’t find a way through the Premiership defence before being hit by Long’s third, courtesy of a costly error from Dee goalie Jack Hamilton.

McDaid added: “Jack was gutted after the game but he’s been good for us all season.

“It’s frustrating for him, he’s gutted but it wasn’t just his fault – it was three rubbish goals and we will have to improve.”

He added: “We were 2-0 down at half-time but the aim was to get back and get a draw at least to stay in the cup.

“We came out and had a go but then we get the sucker punch when they go up and score when we are in the game. That summed it up.

“We were 2-0 down so there’s less pressure and you end up coming out more and having a go – it should be like that at 0-0 from the start of games.

“We need to stop giving teams leads because that’s harder to get back from.”

The calendar year hasn’t brought much cheer yet for the Dark Blues – a 2-0 home defeat to Inverness followed by the Ayr United match being called off and then Saturday’s loss to the Steelmen.

And McDaid knows Dundee need to up their game and quickly.

He added: “The good thing about football is there is always another game.

Declan McDaid returned after missing three games due to injury. Declan McDaid was one of Dundee’s biggest attacking threats against