The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Dark Blues new boy O’Hara relishing change of role under Hartley
New role for former Killie player
Modest Mark O’Hara insists there is room for improvement for him at Dundee despite an already accomplished start to the season.
Signed by manager Paul Hartley with the specific plan of developing him as a midfielder rather than the defender he had mainly been at Kilmarnock, O’Hara scored to get the Dark Blues level with Hamilton in their 1-1 draw at Dens on Friday night.
It was his second goal in successive matches for the club and along with the strikes has come warm praise for his form in the middle of the park.
At just 20, he has the look of a rising star of the Premiership even this early in his spell at Dens but O’Hara has stressed that there is a lot of hard work ahead of him if he is to fulfil his potential.
O’Hara said: “There weren’t many positives to take from the Hamilton game but one for me was that I scored again. I was happy with that.
“The manager has set me a target of 10 goals for the season so it has been a good start. I had an uncertain time at Kilmarnock and while I was playing as a defender I wanted to be further up the park.
“So I’m delighted to be playing where I am for Dundee. I enjoy the position.
“I am grateful for getting this chance and hopefully I can re pay the manager for handing me this opportunity. In many ways, I couldn’t have asked for a better last couple of months. I have gone from uncertainty to starting matches in a set position.”
So has O’Hara been able to ignore the glowing praise in the media and from within his own club?
“A few people have mentioned the comments but I really just want to focus on playing football,” he added.
“To be honest, I have not achieved anything near what I want to achieve yet. I want to get better.
“That was part of the attraction of joining Dundee because nearly everyone who has come here appears to end up a better player than they were before. Hopefully, if I knuckle down and work hard then that is going to happen to me as well.”
While O’Hara kept his own momentum going by pulling the home team level after a Darren Lyon wonder strike had given Accies the lead, the result wasn’t what Dundee in general and Hartley in particular wanted.
Therefore, the players were left in no doubt about the gaffer’s disappointment after the final whistle, as O’Hara confirmed.
The ex-Killie man said: “The manager expressed to us that he wasn’t happy but the boys knew that it wasn’t good enough.
“It isn’t going to be acceptable to play like that this season.
“We should be winning matches like that, particularly when we are at home.
“If we want to be pushing for the top six, which is a target, then we must do better. In the first half we did play well in spells but in the second we just didn’t.
“We resorted to long balls at times in our desperation and it didn’t work for us.
“To be honest, we might look back on that and think it was a good point because towards the end of the game Hamilton could have stolen it from us.”
French defender Kevin Gomis is in contention to make his debut for Dundee against Motherwell at Fir Park on Saturday after agreeing a one-year deal on Friday night.