He knows there remains a lot of work to be done but Dundee boss Paul Hartley believes his team can take massive confidence from Friday’s incredible comeback win over Hearts.
The Dark Blues looked dead and buried, not to mention doomed to spend Christmas rooted to the foot of the Premiership, as they fell two goals down early in the second half.
But an amazing fightback that was crowned by Marcus Haber’s injury-time winner, saw the proceedings end 3-2 in Dundee’s favour.
Delighted as he was by that, the manager did not lose sight of the flaws that led to the initial deficit.
And he himself highlighted the fact had Hearts taken their first-half chances, his team would have been dead and buried with only half the game gone.
Equally, though, he recognised the spirit of his side in battling back when all seemed lost.
Paul believes that’s been a feature of their play since they battled off the bottom of the table at the end of October.
If it continues, he firmly believes, despite one of the tightest relegation battles ever, Dundee can secure their Premiership place for another season.
“The way things worked out will give us confidence and the players should certainly take confidence from the way they won,” he said.
“All credit to them because they showed a lot of character, which is the way it’s been for a while.
“We’ve had good days and bad days but the players have worked hard and that’s us taken 10 points from our last four home games.”
He does accept repeats of the slow start against Hearts will see more points dropped than gained and the aim is to come out of the blocks much quicker at Partick Thistle on Wednesday evening.
“We were very poor in the first half and could have been dead and buried.
“But I think the players deserve credit because they went from being a team of individuals to a team in the second half.
“Once we scored, I think the momentum was with us and we caused them a lot of problems by getting the ball into the box.”
Dundee are likely to make a change or two for Firhill.
After coming on, scoring the equaliser, and driving the team forward from the middle of the park, Paul McGowan looks a certainty to be restored to the starting line-up.
Centre-half Kevin Gomis could be a doubt. The Frenchman only last 45 minutes on Friday night.
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