A huge part of Dundee’s promotion success last season was built on the team spirit instilled throughout the squad.
That’s the view of assistant manager Dave Mackay and he says that togetherness can take the Dark Blues a long way in the Premiership this season, too.
Mackay and manager James McPake have worked hard to develop the camaraderie at Dens during their time in charge.
Every signing is vetted, not just for ability but for attitude and real thought is put into ensuring new players won’t upset things at Dens Park.
One who epitomised that for Mackay was striker Jason Cummings.
The former Hibs and Rangers man was a key player for the Dark Blues in their run to second place.
However, he was left on the bench for both legs of the play-off final against Kilmarnock.
There was no sulking from the Scotland international, though, says Mackay.
“I’m sure everyone saw towards the end of last season that the squad had real togetherness,” he said.
“That included boys who weren’t actually playing, maybe on the bench.
“Jason Cummings was like that in the play-off final. We could hear him shouting from behind us cheering the boys on.
“That’s a guy who had played a lot of games for us but was on the bench for the final.
“Players will be disappointed if they don’t play naturally but there’s ways to deal with it.
“It’s about the team at the end of the day, we had a big goal which we managed to achieve.
“Everyone fully supported the boys on the pitch and that can take you a long way.”
‘You want good people’
On the work done to assess transfer targets, Mackay added: “You just want to bring in good people.
“So when there is a list of targets, you speak to people about what the players are like.
“It wouldn’t put us off if someone maybe has an iffy past as long as you feel you could work with them and get the best out of them.
“We definitely do go in-depth to make sure we speak to a lot of people who have played with them or coached them or just generally know them.
“We don’t just sign someone because we think they are a good player.
“So far, we have managed to get a really good bunch of guys together and its important you don’t upset that by bringing in the wrong sort of character.”
Safety first: ‘We can’t be a yo-yo club’
The Dark Blues are preparing for the first season in the top flight in three years after winning promotion through the play-offs last term.
And the first job is to ensure survival for the following season before thinking about anything loftier.
That’s an approach that served the Dens assistant manager well during his time at St Johnstone.
Mackay spent seven years with the Perth club in the top flight and lifted the Scottish Cup as captain in 2014.
He joined the club in 2009 as a newly-promoted side and helped them to five top-six finishes, including third place in 2012/13.
Though they often ended up at the top end of the table, Mackay insists the approach was always to ensure survival first before thinking any higher.
He said: “Our aim first and foremost is to stay up. That was always the case at St Johnstone.
“We can’t be a yo-yo club, going up and down because it’s difficult to get out of the Championship.
“It’s not the prettiest league at times either so we don’t want to be going back.
“We need to make sure we are safe. As soon as you do that you can have look and see where you can go.
“We have to survive because there are things that come with being relegated.
“It’s obviously massive financially for the club, there can be job losses, player contracts getting cut and sometimes a full turnaround of players and coaching staff.
“We can’t be getting too far ahead of ourselves.”
‘You ran until the last man dropped’: Mackay recalls pre-season as a player
After hanging up his boots in 2016, Mackay admits there aren’t many days he doesn’t miss being a player.
However, for the start of pre-season training he’s most certainly glad he’s a coach these days, watching the Dundee squad get put through their paces.
Though he admits the close-season schedule is a lot different now to when he was starting out as a player at Dens Park.
“It’s definitely different these days. I was here with Jocky in 1999 and Jim Duffy’s pre-seasons were crazy fitness-wise, too.
“Dundee is a horrific place to do runs, too. You’d be going up the Sidlaws, up the Law, there’s just hills upon hills in Dundee and you would just keep running up them.
“Back then they didn’t have all the sports science and looking at all the data, it was just about running you till they more or less killed you!
“It was basically until the last man dropped so it was tough.
“Now, it’s tough running but there is structure behind it and a lot of ball work early doors. We monitor how hard they are working too.
“The boys have had some tough days but everyone has got through it.
“It’s not often you are glad you’re not a player anymore but days like that watching the boys suffer you don’t miss that!”