WE OWE THE BOSS BIG TIME, ADMITS DEACON

ROARIE DEACON admits that Dundee owe Neil McCann a much-improved performance against Partick Thistle after the furious manager described their midweek collapse at Kilmarnock as ‘criminal’ and ‘unprofessional’. The Dark Blues looked to be in command against the ten men of Killie on Tuesday night as they found themselves 2-1 ahead with just over quarter of an hour left. But McCann watched in disbelief as his team fell apart, allowing late strikes from Kris Boyd and Iain Wilson to hand the Rugby Park hosts a stunning victory. Former Sky Sports pundit McCann read the riot act to his players after they had thrown away a victory which would have moved them five points clear of 11th-placed Hamilton and eight clear of bottom club Ross County. Now midfielder Deacon has promised McCann (left) there will be a positive reaction when Dundee head to Firhill to take on a Thistle side who are just one point behind them in tenth place. ‘The gaffer shows a lot of faith in us and when we go on the pitch we need to repay that — especially so this weekend because it was a very hard defeat to take on Tuesday,’ said the 26-year-old Englishman. ‘We were 2-1 up against ten men so it’s true what the manager said. We weren’t professional in terms of seeing out the game. ‘There’s nothing we can do about that defeat now. We just need to look to the match against Partick to try to put things right. ‘After the Kilmarnock game the manager wasn’t happy at all. Obviously, we were disappointed ourselves as we let a big opportunity slip away from us. ‘That was a chance to bridge the gap. It could have been us getting further away from the bottom end. ‘All we can do now is look to correct what we did wrong. One hundred per cent, we’ve now got a point to prove. ‘Training has been sharp this week and we all want to put Tuesday behind us and pick up three points against Partick Thistle.’