O’hara has every right to celebrate his goals in style

Dundee assistant boss Graham Gartland was delighted to see Mark O’hara celebrate his goals in style.

The midfielder went wild after both of his strikes as the Dark Blues ran out 2-1 winners over Rangers last night.

After a tough time at the foot of the table, it showed what it meant to O’hara in particular and the club in general to secure such a terrific result.

Gartland, who stepped in for boss Neil Mccann to do the media duties, said of O’hara’s sheer joy: “Listen, he scores one goal then what turns out the winner on a Friday night on the telly.

“If you are not going to enjoy that then you might as well not play. His did say something about that (his scoring record against Rangers) going into the game.

“You want to have seen Mark work over the last few weeks – he has been excellent. He has been banging in goals on the training pitch. Sometimes you want him to be more aggressive but I thought he brought that tonight. He was aggressive without being stupid.

“He also is a goal threat and for such a big lad he moves so well. He is tall but glides along that pitch and makes great runs. I thought he took his two goals brilliantly.”

The second one was created by sub Scott Allan and Gartland also praised the on-loan Celtic man.

“He opens the game up for other people,” he said.

“His talent is ridiculous in terms of what he can see ahead of him. He also worked very hard for the team so he has bought into what we are trying to do. We were delighted with him.”

Gartland is now hoping that the players can kick on and move clear of the danger zone.

“You hope it’s a springboard,” added the Irishman.

“We have probably played better than that and we haven’t won. So the performances have been there and you just hoped the results would follow. We showed resilience tonight and to see out the last 10 minutes without giving up a chance was great.”

Rangers caretaker boss Graeme Murty said: “We didn’t play well enough to win the game and we sent thousands of fans home unhappy after they came out on a bitterly cold night.”