Dee didn’t cope with pressure, claims O’Dea

DUNDEE: Experienced defender insists Dark Blues are ‘lucky’

Darren O’Dea believes Dundee are lucky not to have been cut adrift at the bottom of the Premiership table.

Thanks to Saturday’s 2-0 home loss to a much superior St Johnstone side, the Dark Blues – who have parted company with Andy Boyle, Calvin Miller and Adil Nabi – head into the new year with just 10 points from 21 matches. They have won only twice in the league this season – both victories coming against fellow strugglers Hamilton Accies – and lost no fewer than 15 fixtures.

To put that into an albeit parochial perspective, city neighbours Dundee United were also sitting on 10 points after 21 matches of their relegation season in 2016.

Tanser said: “I think that’s a record for us as a team and it’s great to be a part of that.

“We’ve achieved it so everyone is happy.

“We just started playing away like we would at home, all working together.

“At the start of the season, you could say we were a new team with quite a few new players.

“It was always going to take a few games for us to gel together.

“Going back to the Celtic game, that was the motivation we needed to get back up and we have never looked back.

“You could say it was a blessing in disguise. We haven’t looked behind us since.”

The 1,800-plus away fans had barely planted their bums on their seats when, with just 35 seconds on the clock, Tanser sent over a cross that hit the post on its way into the home net on Saturday.

Liam Craig added a second after 58 minutes as he moved into second place on the club’s all-time appearance list, behind Steven Anderson, with game number 362.

In truth, it could have been a whole lot more for the visitors, who dominated their opponents from start to finish.

Tanser said: “It was a really good day for us, not just the result, but the performance was great.”

As if Saints needed further good news they got it with an injury update on Murray Davidson, who missed the Dundee game with a knee problem.

Boss Wright said: “Murray’s scan has come back showing no structural damage so it’s just a few weeks he’s looking at.

“That’s obviously great news because we were worried it may be more serious than that.

“We will hopefully have him back once the break is finished.”

Darren O’Dea: Dundee are “lucky”.