Dark Blues facing ‘massive’ games

DUNDEE: Midfielder well aware of the importance of quickfire double-header

Paul McGowan candidly admits that while the next two games will not decide Dundee’s Premiership fate this season, there is no disguising the importance of the double-header.

The bottom-of-the-table Dark Blues suffered what was their third straight defeat at Celtic Park on Saturday, with the champions cruising to a 3-0 win courtesy of a Mikey Johnston double and another goal by Filip Benkovic.

Jim McIntyre’s men now face two home games in quick succession, against Livingston on Wednesday and St Johnstone on Saturday.

And midfielder McGowan agreed they could be season-defining.

He said: “I would say so.

“They will not decide our fate but they are going to be massive.

“I have seen a bit of Livingston this season and I have been really impressed with them.”

“They score from a lot of set plays but they can play football as well,” added McGowan.

“It is going to be a tough game and a big ask for us. We need to stand up and be counted because it is down to the nitty gritty now.

“We can’t keep saying. ‘Oh, we’ll get it next week’. We can’t keep doing that because it is going to end up with a gap that is too big to bridge.

“We had plaudits there for a couple of games but that’s gone now and we need to concentrate on Livingston.”

McGowan’s boss McIntyre had no complaints about the result at Parkhead.

He said: “Obviously it was a deserved scoreline. Celtic were very good, so fluid and caused us lots of problems.

“I thought our organisation, defending deep in the first half, was very good for about 30 minutes, but your concentration levels are so important when playing that counter-attack style.”