Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Points haul puts Dark Blues in a ‘brilliant place’
TONY Docherty believes Dundee are in a “brilliant place” ahead of their home cinch Premiership game against Motherwell on Saturday.
The Dark Blues moved into the top six with a 2-1 win over Tayside rivals St Johnstone at McDiarmid Park last weekend to make it seven points out of nine in March.
With three games to play before the split, Dundee are in sixth place, one point ahead of Hibernian.
Boss Docherty said: “We are confident. We have had a good March. It took an injury-time equaliser for Kilmarnock to stop us getting three wins in March, nine points out of nine.
“But to take seven out of nine against that level of opposition, of course, we have to be buoyed
by that and I am really pleased with the level of consistency from the players in that period and throughout.
“I think the boys are in a brilliant place just now and what I would say is they are such a brilliant group to work with. Any challenge put ahead of them they put their all into it and they are getting their rewards.
“I would say we are in a really good place. We are very confident but we are not complacent or getting ahead of ourselves.
“The next game is the most important game, which is Motherwell on Saturday, and we have prepared for that and look forward to the game.
“We have had two draws against them, they are a good side.
“We are under no illusions as to how difficult a game it is going to be but, as I said, we are in a
good place and we take that into Saturday’s game.”
While a top-six finish is within Dundee’s grasp, Docherty was keen to stress that the main priority is to remain in the league.
He said: “As a newly-promoted team, we must make sure the first objective is to retain top-flight status and that is still our number one objective.
“Saturday’s result was great because it moved us further away from the bottom. We are 11 ahead of St Johnstone and 12 ahead of Ross County (in the relegation play-off spot) but we are not getting carried away.
“The next game against Motherwell is huge.
“If we can take points out of that, we can maybe look at other objectives but, for now, the main priority is to make sure we maintain our Premiership status.”