McGowan heartened by team’s efforts

Midfielder finds positives in Dark Blues’ showing against league leaders

Dundee have re-set their benchmark with their display against runaway league leaders Celtic, according to midfielder Paul McGowan.

Now the next bit is to make sure they don’t fall below it in the weeks ahead.

There is certainly no shame in losing to Brendan Rodgers’ men these days.

And, apart from Scott Brown’s 47th minute goal, Dundee made as a good a job as anybody has this season of keeping the free-scoring Hoops at bay.

The Dark Blues are the only Scottish side to keep Celtic down to just one goal, and McGowan believes the Saturday lunchtime performance proves that there is no need to panic at their lowly Premiership position.

“I thought the boys fought for everything,” he said.

“Everybody saw Celtic in midweek – they should have beaten Man City. And for us to hold them off was a real positive.

“They never really cut us open, and it was a soft goal to lose that cost us.

“I thought that our game plan was working. If you’re going to beat Celtic you need to be 100% at it. I felt we were.

“The boys can take heart from the game, and I’m sure that if we perform like that through the season we’ll be fine.

“Nobody would have given us a chance, and I thought we acquitted ourselves well.

“It was a good performance after what we put on last week.”

The former St Mirren man added: “We need to maintain that level, of course we do.

“That’s exactly what the manager has said. We need to do it week in, week out. This is a tough league.

“We’ll be fine if we can put that effort and work-rate in. The goals will come.

“We had a similar spell to this last season when we were on a bit of a bad run just before Christmas.

“I wouldn’t say it was a major concern. It would be a major concern if it was 25 games into the season.

“We had a good start but we haven’t picked up since then.

“We’re trying to find our identity. New players have come in and will take them time to find their feet.”

The Brown goal was indeed a bit of a scruffy one from a Dundee point of view.

The former Scotland captain was man of the match by a distance, and he drove forward before releasing Moussa Dembele. The home defenders had a chance to clear but the ball broke back to Brown, who was clinical.

Other than that, and a Celtic penalty claim in the first half when Erik Sviatchenko went down in the box from a Cammy Kerr challenge, there weren’t many serious concerns for Scott Bain and his new-look back-line.

McGowan did see enough from their opposition to come to the conclusion that Celtic are champions elect again, though.

Dundee drew twice with them last year, so was there a big difference this time even if there was only one goal in it on Saturday? “Massive,” McGowan said. “Everybody could see on Tuesday night how good a team they are.

“We should have beaten them twice last season and I don’t think anybody could have argued with that.

“You can see that under their new manager they’re the best team in the country by far. Nobody can argue with that.

“The pace they’ve got on the counterattack leaves teams vulnerable.

“The only thing that can stop them is the Champions League or the Europa League if they get into that. Aberdeen are a great side, or even Rangers, but in my opinion they’re on a different level. You can tell the confidence is oozing through them.

“Brendan Rodgers has given their club such a lift.

“If you’re going to lose to them I’d rather have a go, and I felt we did that without creating any really good chances.

“We’ve put so much into the game and we’re disappointed in the result.

“But we’ll take positives because they’ve got so much quality in their team and on the bench.”

If Celtic are rejuvenated under Rodgers, Paul Hartley believes that the same can be said of Brown as an individual.

“I thought people were wrong to write him off,” he said. “People tend to do that.

“Scott is a terrific boy and a fantastic leader. I spoke to him after the game and told him he’s playing as well as ever.

“He got the goal against us, which we were disappointed to lose – but it shows you how he’s playing.

“I saw him in midweek, against a top, top team; then he produces it against us, as well.”

On his own team’s performance, Hartley observed: “I am pleased with the players.

“We needed a big performance today and a big reaction from last week.

“Celtic are a quality team, they only made one change from the Man City game, but I felt we were good today.

“I thought our organisation and discipline was good and I thought we were brave playing two up and trying to high press against them.

“They didn’t really cut us open and I felt we were always in the game.

“We can take a lot of positives.”

Picture: SNS. Paul McGowan shows the sort of effort he says Dundee have to maintain week in, week out.