Beating Ton acted as real pick-me-up for Dark Blues – McPake

Dundee boss Ja m e s McPake was delighted to see his players get the “pick-me-up” they needed after edging past Morton 1-0 at Dens Park.

It might not have been pretty but the Dark Blues gaffer insists all he cared about was getting a first win on the board, no matter what.

The Dark Blues had kicked off their Championship season on the wrong foot with a 6-2 defeat at He a r t s on opening day.

Following that they faced an in-form Greenock Morton side at the weekend yet to taste defeat this season and going back to last term, had only been beaten once in 11 matches.

“It was a dangerous game,” McPake said.

“Morton were coming into it in good form and at the tail end of last season they had the best form in the league.

“It was a dangerous game but we showed a lot of character. It wasn’t pretty but it doesn’t need to be, we got the three points. I’m delighted for the players, as a group they needed that.

“We all needed a pickme-up from last week and you can talk about performance but sometimes in football you just want the three points and Saturday was one of them.”

Mc P a k e rang the changes from the defeat at Tynecastle with five new faces coming into the side.

That saw an immediate impact as Jo n a t h a n

Afolabi smashed in after just five minutes on his first start for the club since joining on loan from Celtic.

Also impressing after returning to the starting XI were Declan McDaid, Danny Mullen, Shaun Byrne and young goalkeeper Calum Ferrie, making his first league start in two years.

The Dens gaffer said: “Afolabi is a handful and technically very good. He will get us goals but his all-round play was really good and I’m delighted for him.

“Calum was great. He’s waited and been very patient to get his chance. I worked with him at U20s and he is really reliable. The clean sheet will give him a boost.”

He added: “I thought Shaun Byrne was excellent coming back in after being out a while.

“He’s also missed a lot of pre-season so to come in and play 93 minutes and control the middle of the pitch, I was delighted with him as well.”

The victory gets Dundee off the mark in the Championship this season with another home match against inform Raith Rovers to come next weekend.

With Hearts making a fast start to the promotion race, Mc Pa ke was delighted to see his side return to winning ways so quickly.

“Maybe last year that would have been a game we lost, particularly after a big defeat,” he added.

“It was a tough week for the players.”

Declan McDaid impressed on his return to action.