Deefiant hero hits

Lockwood learned of his Dens Park release in 2014 in website statement as manager ‘had no time’ for relegation battle legend

his time at the club, Lockwood says his exit – discovering his release at the end of his deal via the club’s official site – leaves a bitter taste.

“That hurt me, I must admit,” he said. “Spending four years at the club and going through the Deefiant year and everything we’d been through.

“You come to the end of your contract and you have individual meetings with the manager, they’ll say ‘You’ve been great, here’s a new contract,’ or ‘Thanks for your efforts but we’re going to let you go’.

“I didn’t get a call, Paul Hartley never contacted me, no one from the club ever rang me to thank me for my efforts.

“Harry MacLean actually rang me and wished me all the best, thanked me for everything I had done for the club – the old chief executive rang me to thank me and I said: ‘What are you talking about?’

“It was on the club website I’d been released. No one rang me, I didn’t know.

“I was actually toying with the idea of turning up for pre-season because no one told me I was released.

“It really annoyed me, the lack of common decency. I thought I deserved more than that, and not just from the manager. It was a bitter pill to swallow. “I’ve not been back to Dens since.” He added: “I don’t want to have a go or anything because they got promoted and he was there a few years.

“But I’d say a good manager is a manmanager but for me that was severely lacking in Paul Hartley’s armour, he’s not a good man-manager at all. I think he alienated a few boys.

“He didn’t do well by me and I say treat people how they treat you.”

He has fond memories of his arrival and first few years at the club, although mired by administration, after former Leyton Orient team-mate Easton recommended him to boss Gordon Chisholm.

“I was struggling for a club,” the 201011 Player of the Year admitted.

“I was training with Southend where Craig Easton was club captain. He knew Billy Dodds and knew Dundee wanted a left-back.

“Doddsy and Chis had never heard of me but Easty put in a good word for me.

“That turned into four years and it all started with Craig Easton.”

Picture: SNS. Top: Matt Lockwood celebrates scoring against Hearts at Dens Park in 2011. Above: Former Dundee boss Paul Hartley was a poor man-manager, said Lockwood, who applied for the job before Hartley was appointed.