Goalkeeper Adam Legzdins has called on Dundee to turn their festive frowns upside down.
The Dark Blues find themselves in the bottom two as they celebrate Christmas with their families after four straight defeats.
However, they have the opportunity to make Boxing Day a much cheerier affair when they head north to Aberdeen.
The Dons had been Dundee’s bogey side until this season, winning 13 meetings on the bounce.
Their last meeting did, however, see the Dark Blues celebrate their first Premiership win of the campaign, deservedly seeing off Stephen Glass’s side 2-1 at Dens.
Good omen
That win also came after four straight defeats.
“I hope it is a good omen,” says goalie Legzdins.
“This week has been a tough one.
“Two results, Hibs and Hearts, were results that were close and on another night could have been completely different.
“It is disappointing with the results but we need to take encouragement from the performances.
“I could have been sitting here with two clean sheets and what could have been more invaluable points.”
‘Avoidable’
The nature of the goals conceded in those two matches have irked the Dens keeper.
The only goal of the game at Easter Road came from a Paul McMullan own goal before Hearts’ winner at Dens last weekend was a scrappy one.
Luck hasn’t been on their side of late but Legzdins insists heads won’t drop at Dundee.
“I thought I should have had two clean sheets last week,” he said.
“They were definitely avoidable from my point of view.
“Paul has tracked back and there is the own goal and Liam Fontaine has tried to block a shot and it has hit the post and came straight back to their player.
“It is frustrating but you can’t let these sort of things get you down.
“You need to keep going.”
‘Result when we needed it’
Though Dundee fell into the relegation spots thanks to the result at McDiarmid Park on Wednesday night, they remain within touching distance of the sides above them.
Victory over the Dons in October sparked a run where they picked up 13 points from a possible 21 – the vast majority of their current total.
And that’s something the playing squad should remember ahead of their trip to Pittodrie.
“It is so tight down there,” he added.
“We have beaten teams above us, teams like Motherwell and we beat Aberdeen not so long ago so there is nothing to fear going into these games.
“Results have been disappointing. There is no getting away from that.
“That was a good result against them last time when we needed to get a result.
“We all came together as players, staff and as a team and we got a result when we last needed it and we will be looking for something similar on Sunday.
“We have to work on things the manager wants us to do and look to improve on certain things.
“If we do that then it is a winnable game for us.”
