Dundee boss sees positives in spite of loss
For a manager who has lost his first four matches with an aggregate scoreline of 13-0, Dundee’s Jim McIntyre looked remarkably relaxed as he discussed the latest reverse in the media room at Fir Park.
McIntyre claimed to have seen enough from his players yesterday to provide him with succour for the weeks and months to come.
“That was disappointing but there were a lot more positives,” he claimed.
“I thought that was a lot more like I want us to play.
“It was much better than the other night [the 5-0 home defeat by Celtic].
“The fight they showed does give me hope, although it’s obviously going to take them time to get used to what I expect. In saying that we need to start picking up results as we don’t want to get detached.”
Dundee also lost centre-backs Darren O’Dea and Andy Boyle to injury, although both should be available for next weekend’s crunch match against second-bottom St Mirren.
“Andy has a gash in his knee,” said McIntyre. “I don’t think there was any intention — it was just two pros going for the ball.
“He should be OK after a couple of stitches.
“Darren was having a bit of blurred vision after taking a knock. He was struggling to see and we couldn’t take any chances.
“Losing him upset us a wee bit and, when you think of how we lost the goal… one of our centre-backs has got to close that down.
“Even then, we lost the ball in a good position.
“We make a poor decision when a forward pass is on. They take a quick throw-in and we’re caught with men up the park.
“There was a bit of naivety there which came back to bite us.
“But on the plus side people did their jobs and they were prepared to do the ugly side of the game.
“We also switched the play well and used the wide areas. All that was lacking was the final bit.
“Do I think we should have had a penalty? No – the ref got it right.”