Dundee boss James McPake was delighted to see his players get the “pick-me-up” they needed after edging past Morton 1-0 at Dens Park.
It might not have been pretty but the Dark Blues gaffer insists all he cared about was getting a first win on the board.
The Dark Blues had kicked off their Championship season on the wrong foot with a 6-2 defeat at Hearts on opening day.
Following that they faced an in-form Greenock Morton side at the weekend yet to taste defeat this season and going back to last term, had only been beaten once in 11 matches.
“It was a dangerous game,” McPake said.
“Morton were coming into it in good form and at the tail end of last season they had the best form in the league.
“They are a side doing well and we were on the back of a really poor performance last Friday night.
“It was a dangerous game but we showed a lot of character. It wasn’t pretty but it doesn’t need to be, we got the three points.
“I’m delighted for the players, as a group they needed that. We all needed a pick-me-up from last week and you can talk about performance but sometimes in football you just want the three points and Saturday was one of them.”
McPake rang the changes from the defeat at Tynecastle with five new faces coming into the side.
That saw an immediate impact as Jonathan Afolabi smashed in after just five minutes on his first start for the club since joining on loan from Celtic.
Also impressing after returning to the starting XI were Declan McDaid, Danny Mullen, Shaun Byrne and young goalkeeper Calum Ferrie, making his first league start in three years.
The Dens gaffer said: “Afolabi is a handful and technically very good. It was a really good finish, he’s got a great left foot.
“Again he’s behind where we’d want him to be, him and Danny Mullen. Afolabi will get us goals but his all-round play was really good and I’m delighted for him.
“Calum was great. He’s waited and been very patient to get his chance. I worked with him at U/20s and he is really reliable. The clean sheet will give him a boost.”
He added: “I thought Shaun Byrne was excellent coming back in after being out a while. He’s also missed a lot of pre-season so to come in and play 93 minutes and control the middle of the pitch, I was delighted with him as well.”
The victory gets Dundee off the mark in the Championship this season with another home match against in-form Raith Rovers to come next week.
With Hearts making a fast start to the promotion race, McPake was delighted to see his side return to winning ways so quickly.
“Maybe last year that would have been a game we lost, particularly after a big defeat,” he added.
“It was a tough week for the players and they were hurting, as was everybody.
“The important thing was to get the three points. We need to be better and we will be better but Saturday was just get the three points and get out of there.”
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