Haber: I’m hurting but we’re all committed to the Dundee cause

After a difficult few days that have seen Paul Hartley sacked and Neil McCann appointed interim boss, Marcus Haber is hurting.

And, in the wake of seven straight defeats that have plunged Dundee down to the relegation play-off place, he accepts he should be.

But the Canadian international has assured Dark Blues fans every member of the squad is fighting tooth and nail to get to safety.

It’s been a horrific time for Haber and his team-mates as they’ve gone from top-six contenders to the side pundits are tipping for the drop.

The board, though, have taken measures they think will prevent that by bringing in McCann.

For Haber, despite the disappointment of seeing Hartley lose his job, it’s a case of all hands to the pump to help McCann keep the club in the division.

“Everyone is committed to the cause, everyone is fighting for the team and the club. That’s never going to change,” said the 27-year-old.

“Right now it’s all about sticking to what we know we’re capable of and trying to get results to turn things round. We know we can do that and we will.”

He takes strength from the fact when he signed up at Dens back in October, initially on a short-term contract that’s since become a two-year deal, the team were bottom of the table.

That situation worsened when Dundee went down 2-0 to Partick on his debut but there followed an immediate and impressive recovery that got the team back into mid-table by the turn of the year.

And while the current horrible run of defeats has seen them plummet back down to second bottom, he believes another comeback is on the cards during the post-split fixtures.

“We’ve shown we can beat most teams in this league and put together a run of results.

“We have the players to do that, for sure. It’s about getting the majority of the team playing well again and we can do that.

“Right now we might lack a bit of confidence, that’s normal from these types of results we’ve had. But we need to stick together as a group and we should be OK.”

During this run the emphasis has been on putting each defeat behind them as quickly as possible and focusing on the next game but Haber concedes the players have to learn from the mistakes that have been made over the last month-and-a-half.

And he doesn’t disguise the feeling of frustration over what is a self-inflicted crisis.

“I think you look at the individual mistakes and collectively you have to look at the 90 minutes of each game and see where we need to improve.

“There will always be incidences throughout the 90 minutes that can change the course of the game and you need to look at that bigger picture and work on those areas.

“On Saturday against Hamilton we came into the game confident and to try to take some points, so we were disappointed with the result and how we conceded the goals as well.

“Giving away a penalty is hard to take and the late goal from a set-piece was disappointing, too.

“We’d set up in a way of playing because we wanted to be more attacking, especially at home and create more chances.

“We started the game decent, had a few half-chances, got into some good areas but it just didn’t work for us.

“It’s a game of inches. It just takes that extra bit of quality in the final third, that bit of class, and I think that’s what we’re lacking right now.”