It’s getting Berra all the time for Byrne

Dee midfielder reflects on how expectations went up after dropping a division

Dealing with “big club” pressure has been one of the Dundee team’s improvements in recent weeks, according to Shaun Byrne.

The midfielder dropped down a division when he swapped Livingston for Dens Park but the expectation levels went up.

Individually, Byrne now looks comfortable with the Dark Blues’ job description and the same could be said for the squad as a whole as they seek to make it three Championship wins in a row against Alloa at Dens tonight.

“It is a big club,” he said. “No offence to Livi but last season I was playing in front of 1,000 fans.

“Everything had been going well at the club and we were punching above our weight in the Premiership. They are still doing that this year.

“The Dundee fans are really demanding but you need to deal with that. It is maybe something that we have learned over the last few weeks and months.

“But they have also been really good with us as well. When we are playing well they are right behind us. So it is up to us to get them on our side with our performances and playing well.”

Byrne believes his recent run of form could be described as his best since his summer transfer.

“Probably, yes,” he said. “I am feeling quite confident going into games and a run in the team is helping.

“Confidence is massive in football. When you are confident you will try things but if you are struggling you will just take the easy option. So I am feeling good and obviously we have had some decent results as well which always helps.

“You always want to come into a new club and start off flying.

“We were maybe struggling as a team and you can start doubting yourself.

“But there are no excuses – earlier on I wasn’t good enough. I think as a team, we weren’t good enough as well.

“But I am feeling good now and hopefully I can kick on until the end of the season.”

Byrne added: “It’s maybe harder to play in this league sometimes just because the way the games are with a lot of battles. You get a bit more time in the Premiership whereas in the Championship there are a lot of second balls.

“I think we have done the dirty side of the game better in recent weeks.

“We have passed the ball well at times this year but it is the stuff when we don’t have the ball that we have struggled with a bit.

“There are games like Morton away where you are never going to be able to get it down and build from the back so we have had to change our game a bit.

“It has helped us the last few weeks. I think we have just been better as a team, working hard and being more compact.

“Obviously Christophe (Berra) has come in and he has really helped with his organising at the back.

“It has been really positive the last few weeks and we need to build on it.”

Byrne is confident that the weekend postponement of their match against Arbroath won’t disrupt Dundee’s momentum.

He said: “We had prepared well all week for the game. So it was disappointing that it was called off at

“There are no excuses – earlier on I wasn’t good enough. SHAUN BYRNE

the last minute but you can’t control the weather and we will just have to look forward to the Alloa game.

“There are still a lot of teams that can finish in the play-offs but we have said from the start we just need to concentrate on ourselves.

“We are the only ones who can define what we are going to do this season.

“You always try to win your home games and the gaffer said last week that we can’t afford to go on another bad run like the ones we have gone on before this season.

“So every game is important just now, starting with Alloa.”

Wasps boss Peter Grant has challenges at both ends of the park ahead of his side pitching up at Dens Park.

Grant will not know until this afternoon what his defence will be as he explained: “Robbie Deas missed out on Saturday’s 2-0 defeat from Ayr as he was injured and he is a huge doubt for this one.

“Both our full-backs came off injured and I will not know who is available until we meet up.”

As for the attacking side of the Wasps, Grant said: “One of the reasons we lost at the weekend was because we never took the chances that came our way. We matched Ayr all over the park apart from the most important area and that is scoring.

“Their goalkeeper made good saves but I look at those saves as missed opportunities.

“We need to get things right at both ends to do well at Dundee.”