‘Ruthless’ call by O’Dea

“It is strange to be saying this after this result but last year, for a lot of the season, I came off after games feeling we went down with a whimper, but we are not doing that now,” added O’Dea.

“It is fine margins but we need to start being more ruthless and coming out of matches on the right side.”

Dundee missed a barrowload of chances – including a penalty blasted over by Scott Allan at 2-0 – but O’Dea conceded it was not just the strikers’ fault that they lost.

He added: “It was a really strange game. It is unusual and hard to digest just now because you kind of wonder how we managed that.

“One thing we spoke about before the match was how we got turned over by them (Hamilton) last season.

“When you come here it is about character, commitment and desire because this game is always a tough one. It is always physically demanding but I thought we stood up to that really, really well. We should have been in front – no doubt about it.

“We had chances and couldn’t finish them. We should not have been conceding like we did either and there are definitely things to work on.

“So it’s about both ends of the pitch. We have to score and we have to stop conceding goals.”

As well as O’Dea’s injury, winger Randy Wolters lasted only half-an-hour or so after hurting his hamstring, while Roarie Deacon didn’t make the squad because of a knock picked up in the derby cup win over Dundee United.