Lessons learned from previous meetings helped Dark Blues see off Rangers

Dundee goal hero Kevin Holt has revealed how they succeeded by not showing Rangers too much respect, writes Ian Roache.

The full-back, who scored what proved to be the winning goal from a free-kick four minutes before half-time on Sunday, admitted they were determined not to repeat the mistakes made in previous meetings with the Ibrox team.

As a result, the Dark Blues went for the jugular right from kick-off and they dominated the Light Blues on the way to a thoroughly deserved 2-1 victory.

The result was significant in that it brought to an end a 25-year wait for a victory over Rangers at Dens Park, while it was also their first success of 2017.

Perhaps more importantly, though, it moved Paul Hartley’s side into the top six, where they would love to stay between now and the end of the season.

Holt, whose goal added to Mark O’Hara’s opener before Joe Garner got one back for their opponents, said: “We wanted to press Rangers high up the pitch.

“In the past, we had maybe given them a bit too much respect. This time, we thought: ‘They are coming to our pitch so let’s make it hard for them.’

“That was exactly what we did.

“I definitely thought we deserved the three points and it was good to finally get a win this year.

“Our home form has been good overall and we knew that going into the Rangers game.

“We also knew there was a lot of stuff going on at Rangers but that didn’t matter to us.

“Honestly, we were just thinking about ourselves and we played well.

“I think if you asked anyone they would be hard pushed to go back and point to a game where we have played better than that for the whole 90 minutes.

“We have had spells where we might have played a bit better here and there but, as the manager said, as a team it is probably as well as we have played in a long time.”

Next up for the Dens men is a trip to Fir Park to face Motherwell and Holt knows they can’t afford to let their level of performance dip.

He said: “The important thing is that we realise we can’t just play like that at home but have to do so away as well.

“We have been trying to get into the top six for a wee while and obviously there are still a lot of teams around about us trying to get into that top six.

“Now we have to hold on to sixth and hopefully we can do that.”

Kevin Holt celebrates his goal with team-mates.