O’Hara’s celebrations put on ice

It was Mark O’Hara’s birthday on Tuesday but the Dundee player was certainly in no mood for celebrating after the Dark Blues lost to Hearts,

writes Neil Robertson.

Boss Neil McCann let rip at his team after the setback at Tynecastle, labelling their below-par performance in the 2-0 defeat a “joke”.

O’Hara, who turned 22 on Tuesday, admitted the players had let the club down and even went as far to offer an apology to the 531 Dundee supporters who travelled to Edinburgh to back the side.

Now, though, he is determined he will enjoy some belated birthday joy by helping the Dark Blues return to winning ways in Saturday’s crunch game against bottom side Partick at Dens.

O’Hara said: “Everybody is extremely disappointed, to be honest.

“The manager was very angry afterwards which was fair enough.

“First half especially, I don’t know what it was but we were off it. Second half we gave it a go and we opened up a bit.

“We had a few chances but for whatever reason, we weren’t at it.”

“I can’t put my finger on it but we will return to training looking to put things right,” added the midfielder.

“The manager said we let the fans down who came through to support us against Hearts.

“We have also let the club down and I can only apologise for that – hopefully we can put that right on Saturday.

“It was my birthday on Tuesday so it has been a bit of a nightmare with the way things turned out.

“But we will just have to pick ourselves up and go again on Saturday.

“Hopefully I will have something to celebrate then by getting a win.”

The mood in the Dundee camp had been buoyant after the recent successive wins over Rangers and Ross County.

However, following two defeats on the bounce to Aberdeen and Hearts, O’Hara is under no illusions about how key the next matches will be with a trip to Motherwell to follow on from this Saturday’s game with the Jags.

O’Hara added: “Obviously we were on a high after the two wins but we have now had two back-to-back defeats.

“It makes the game against Partick Thistle on Saturday even more important.

“We have to stop this rot again and hopefully a home win over them will turn things around.

“Aberdeen at home and Hearts away are two difficult fixtures.

“No disrespect to other teams but Partick at home and Motherwell away are more winnable games and they are even more massive now.

“We really need to win both those games.”

Mark O’Hara suffered a birthday “nightmare”.