More pluses than minuses

First, the positives. Dundee simply could not afford to lose Saturday’s game with secondbottom side St Mirren and they deserve a lot of credit for bouncing back strongly after going behind to earn a draw.

Kenny Miller’s equaliser was the first time the Dark Blues had hit the back of the net in 474 minutes of football and his partnership with my man-of-the-match Benjamin Kallman looks promising. The result also ended a run of five straight defeats and was the first time the home fans had seen their team take a single point in the league at Dens this season.

Martin Woods, making his first start since signing for the club, produced an assured performance in midfield while left-back Nathan Ralph, playing his first game since being injured back in August, had his best game in a dark blue shirt. Overall, Dundee looked more solid as a unit than they had done under Neil McCann and there was a high tempo to their game, something current boss Jim McIntyre demands.

As for the negatives... the manager doesn’t need me to tell him his team really should have taken all three points.

It was a missed opportunity and Dundee can ill afford to have many more of those this season.

A win would have taken them off the bottom of the table and provided the players with a big psychological boost going into the international break.

However, there were still more pluses than minuses to give Dundee some hope that what has been a desperately disappointing campaign so far can still be turned around.