He’s knows there’s every chance of not being part of it but midfielder Martin Woods hopes Dundee can do a Ross County next season and bounce straight back up to the Premiership.
But he has warned it won’t be easy and cites the example of another of his former employers, Partick Thistle, who got things wrong and only escaped a second consecutive relegation by the skin of their teeth.
“It’s a big rebuilding job for the football club no matter what route they go down now,” he said.
“But I really hope they do similar to what Ross County have done in the last year. Look at it and come back strong.
“They are going to need to look for the right kind of players and the right way to play in that league because it is not easy as everyone knows.
“Partick went down as well and it’s not as easy as thinking you are a decent club and you will get straight back up.
“Partick have suffered and came close to going down again. Ross County have gone the other way and kind of romped the league this season.
“I really hope this can happen for the football club here.”
The 33-year-old was Jim McIntyre’s first signing when he joined up on a short-term deal in November and initial good work saw that extended to the end of the season.
Now, with extensive changes set to be made, his Dens future has to be in doubt.
He realises and accepts that and also believes with so many people hurting in the wake of relegation from the Premiership being confirmed at the weekend, it would be wrong to be thinking of his own situation right now.
“I don’t want to talk about that now, I don’t think that’s right just now,” Woods added.
“I have enjoyed the club. I know in recent weeks it has been pretty difficult because we haven’t got results.
“We all get criticism because of that and people don’t look at how you’ve done because you have not won a game for so long and you’ve got to accept that.”
Some of that criticism has been directed at him but he’s refused to hit back and has instead urged the fans to stick by their club.
“In the main, the fans have been brilliant. In recent weeks we’ve let them down and we have to accept the flak, all the criticism.
“Nobody comes out of this with credit and if you don’t win games you don’t deserve credit.
“I would just say to them to stick by the club and, hopefully, the rebuilding is done properly and they get this good club back up to where they belong.”
Like the rest of the dressing-room at Dens, Woods is hurting right now.
What he’s not doing is seeking sympathy and he admits the criticism levelled against the team as they’ve plummeted towards the Championship has been fair.
“We just accept every bit of criticism that comes our way. It’s been a terrible time.
“You can’t defend any one side. We’ve been conceding and there’s been so many individual errors.
“We’ve not been putting the ball in the net either, so what chance have you got of staying up? You’ve got no chance.
“You can’t say we’ve been unlucky, you can’t. We’ve failed. We’ve failed as a team and we’ve failed as individuals.
“You can’t say ‘maybe this or maybe that’, we’re down and we deserve to be down because we didn’t get the points on the board.
“There is no point in looking at performances and saying these things, we are down and we deserve to be down.
“We have let everybody down and it’s just a bit numb just now.”
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