Hartley hails Dee’s ‘best’ performance

DUNDEE’S first home win in the league all season had manager Paul Hartley happy with the overall performance of his players.

The Dee’s 2-0 victory saw them comfortably beat Motherwell with some excellent all-round displays.

“I think that’s the best we’ve been in terms of a team performance — how we defended and how we attacked,” said Paul.

“It’s been difficult for us at home not getting a result.

“We said to the players can we get the monkey of our back?

“So we’ve done that and did it with a good performance, which was pleasing.

“We might have had a bit of luck but, overall, I think we deserved to win the game.”

The bit of good fortune he was talking about was when keeper David Mitchell carried the ball over the line from a cross but wasn’t seen by the officials and no goal was given.

Paul was diplomatic when asked his thoughts about the incident.

“I’ve not really seen it but it looks like it possibly could have been a goal.

“But we haven’t had any luck this season, so maybe we were due a break — a wee bit of luck.”

Dundee’s front pairing of Marcus Haber and Craig Wighton also came in for some special praise from the Dark Blues gaffer after Saturday’s win against Motherwell.

“I thought the two front players made a big difference to us.

“I think Haber, since he has come in, has took the ball in really well.

“We’ve changed where Craig was playing and he was excellent.

“He’s been around the squad for the last few years and there was a lot of expectation on his shoulders when he came into the team at 15.”

Hartley was also keen to point out the change in atmosphere after a couple of good wins but also stressed next week won’t be an easy one.

“What a difference two games makes.

“We all feel better about ourselves going into the international break.

“We can enjoy it but we’ve explained to the players also that next week will be a tough one in terms of working hard in training.”

The international weekend will give Kevin Gomis a chance to recover from the injury that saw him come off on Saturday.

“We’ll check on Gomis today and hope it isn’t too bad,” said Hartley.

“We think it’s just a shoulder problem.”

Dundee midfielder James Vincent rides the challenge from Motherwell’s Scott McDonald in Saturday’s 2-0 win at Dens.