He may have only played five league games so far for Dundee but Mark O’Hara is already fed-up to the back teeth with too many draws.
Saturday’s stalemate against his former side Kilmarnock was the third time in this Premiership campaign so far that the Dark Blues have had to settle for a share of the spoils.
O’Hara is now determined to “draw” a line under that run, starting next Sunday when Aberdeen arrive at Dens on league business.
The 20-year-old, who joined Dundee earlier this summer, said: “It is really frustrating and we need to do better, especially at home and start winning games.
“If you want to push on to top six, these are the games you have to win.
“Hopefully, once we win one at Dens it will turn and kick us on.
“The crowd are very supportive and I can’t really put my finger on it but like I said, it should turn with that one victory.
“There are big games coming up and there is a lot to play for.
“These are the matches you want to play in and there’s no reason why we can’t win them.
“Aberdeen are obviously a good side but it would be great to win and hopefully it will give a lot of confidence to the team.”
The Dark Blues made a dream start on Saturday taking the lead in just the seventh minute.
Dundee were awarded a free-kick wide right with new signing Tom Hateley producing a tempting delivery into the Killie penalty area with the ball finding its way to Faissal El Bakhtaoui, who made no mistake, shooting high into the net for his first goal for the club.
The home side looked to capitalise on that promising start and dominated the game without creating clear-cut chances.
Killie rarely threatened but they equalised with a wonder goal completely out of the blue in the 32nd minute.
Adam Frizzell sent a cross in from the right towards Souleymane Coulibaly loitering just outside the corner of the Dundee six-yard box with the Kilmarnock player producing an unbelievable overhead kick to fire past the helpless Scott Bain in the Dundee goal.
Two minutes into the second half, Dundee had a great chance to take the lead once more when Craig Wighton was played through on goal but Killie keeper Jamie MacDonald made a vital double block to deny the striker.
Dundee suffered a big blow in the 81st minute when Kevin Gomis was dismissed after a crunching challenge on Killie sub Charlee Adams which referee Don Robertson deemed late and worthy of a red card.
O’Hara admitted that after going ahead so early, it should have been the perfect platform to secure three points but instead, the incredible equaliser turned the game on its head.
He added: “Saturday’s game was very frustrating on a personal and team level.
“These are the matches we said at the start of the season we should be winning.
“I think we looked comfortable in the early stages and as soon as we got the goal, I thought it would be one-way traffic from then on.
“But when they got their goal, they had a wee lift and the game turned a bit.
“Their goal was a very special finish and we just need to hold our hands up and say there wasn’t much we could do about it apart from maybe stopping the cross.
“That’s a couple of times that’s happened to us. The goal against Hamilton was special and that’s another special one today.”
O’Hara made his Scotland Under-21 debut last week against Ukraine in Kiev and while delighted to play for his country, he admitted that being away with the national side possibly affected his performance in the Killie game.
He said: “I was happy but to be honest, it probably hindered my performance against Killie.
“I wasn’t as sharp as I had been, maybe because of all the travelling.
“But yes, I was delighted to make my debut for the Under-21s.”
On his return from national duty, O’Hara linked up with the Dundee squad again which included new signing Hateley.
And O’Hara admitted he has been hugely impressed by the former Motherwell man.
He said: “You can tell he has real quality.
“We were working on setpieces on Friday but he didn’t have his chance to showcase that against Kilmarnock but you can tell he is going to be a big asset to the team.
“As the season goes on, I can see it becoming an important factor, using that wand to get balls into the box. That will cause a lot of danger to other teams.”
