The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Holt insists Dark Blues ready for three huge games.
Missed chances sum up their season but players believe they can still come good
MOTHERWELL 2 DUNDEE 1
Dundee fought their way out of a tougher Premiership predicament 12 months ago.
And Kevin Holt is convinced that they will secure their safety with a better team this time around as well.
With three games left, the Dark Blues have a four-point cushion over second bottom Partick Thistle despite their 2-1 defeat at Motherwell. “It’s still in our hands,” said Holt. “We’ve got three big games coming up. “When we were going into the split last year we were in a worse position. We’d lost seven games in a row and morale wasn’t great. This year it’s in our hands.
“I think we’re a better team this season and we’re better to watch. It’s not been great in terms of points but there’s a belief in the changing room that we’re more than capable of doing enough.
“I don’t want to say that we’re in a false position because it’s our fault where we are. It is points that matter at the end of the day.”
The Fir Park loss was another mini summary of why Dundee will be going into May without nailing down their top flight place for next season.
Craig Wighton, Simon Murray, A-Jay Leitch-Smith and Mark O’Hara all missed chances that were better than 50-50 ones and in O’Hara’s case, his late volley over the bar from eight yards was a head buried in the turf moment.
And at the other end, two goals were conceded from cross balls, cancelling out Genseric Kusunga’s opener and then giving the hosts the win.
“There were a few clear-cut chances that we didn’t take and it has come back to bite us,” Holt admitted.
“That’s been the case a few times this season. We’re not just putting it on the strikers. Chances have been missed by players right across the park.
“When you add in the cheap goals we’ve given away, we are where we are for a reason.”
Losing Sofien Moussa with the game barely started didn’t help their cause, and neither did Kusunga being stretchered off before the second half got under way.
The big centre-back had taken a blow to the chest when scoring and the effects got too much for him as the teams came back out for the restart.
It was a worrying sight for his teammates.
Holt said: “Gensy obviously wasn’t feeling right.
“You could see something was wrong straight away. He’s a big strong boy and you’re thinking the worst. “It was a bit upsetting to see it. “It must have lasted five to 10 minutes but you can’t take any chances when someone collapses on the pitch like that. I think he’s feeling all right now, thankfully, and he’ll get himself checked over.”
Manager Neil McCann, who was angry that fourth official Willie Collum spotted a hand-ball before Motherwell’s winner but the referee didn’t, said: “You work all week on a game plan and Moussa was carrying a calf muscle injury but thought he’d be OK. So we had to change things and it took A-Jay a wee while to get into the game.
“But I felt we looked dangerous. Simon Murray had four chances in the first half, which he didn’t expect, playing out wide. Then we lose Genseric but, thankfully, the over-riding feeling is that he’s going to be OK because it’s not great when you see a player sit down like that.
“I went over to see him and he looked absolutely sparkled. He was like a boxer. His eyes were gone, he was having chest pains and was struggling to breathe – I think as a result of the impact when he got our goal, when he took one on the chest.
“The doctor is satisfied that it isn’t anything sinister, which was my worry, but he’s lucid again and seems to be OK.”
The performance of his side gave McCann cause for optimism going into the Hamilton game on Saturday.
“Nothing would’ve been settled today, regardless of the result,” he said.
“A win would have put us in a better position but I’ve seen enough from my side to feel confident. We were the better team and we’ll go again on Monday.”