Dundee boss Paul Hartley insists he retains full faith in his own ability to turn fortunes around at the club and he won’t be changing a thing about the way he approaches his job.
The Dark Blues are, of course, sitting bottom of the Premiership table with Sunday’s defeat at McDiarmid Park against St Johnstone their fifth league loss in a row.
They now face another crunch game at Dens this evening against second-bottom Partick Thistle.
However, Hartley is determined to keep going about his business as usual and believes altering course now would cause even bigger problems.
He said last night: “The best managers go through difficult spells and situations.
“I am going through a difficult spell just now but I won’t change.
“I won’t change as a person, I will remain upbeat and positive. I think if you start changing, the players sense that and then that becomes a real problem.
“So I will keep encouraging them, continue training the way we have been doing – we just need a wee break.”
Dundee’s Paul McGowan candidly confessed after the Saints game that the players are now aware that they are in a “scary” situation.
Hartley echoed that sentiment and insisted that everyone at the club has to take responsibility.
He said: “I think we all know that. I am the first to admit. We don’t try and dress things up here.
“I don’t do that as a manager when we are not playing well and on a poor run.
“I understand that and we all take responsibility, not just the players. As a staff as a manager, I take responsibility always.
“What I will say is I have a terrific bunch of lads that are great to work with.
“We just need to find that little bit of confidence to turn things around.
“The players are great and I love working with them.
“We just need a win from somewhere – that’s the bottom line.
“I have an honest bunch of players in there. We are not playing well just now and when you are on a losing run, the confidence goes down a bit.
“But what I am seeing in training every day . . . we just need to find it out on the pitch.”
Hartley also admitted the club’s supporters can play an important part in helping his squad regain confidence and the winning habit.
He said: “The fans come and pay their money to hopefully see their team winning.
“We are not doing that just now and we have to accept the criticism.
“Hopefully, they will stick by us. The majority of the time, they have been great here.
“We don’t like where we are just now and we want to find a solution to get out of it.
“So hopefully the fans will give us the backing tomorrow night – I am sure they will.”
Dundee will have a new addition in their squad for the game against the Jags in the shape of Canadian international striker Marcus Haber.
He is in Hartley’s thoughts for a starting spot along with Rory Loy, who netted his side’s consolation penalty against St Johnstone at the weekend.
The manager added: “Rory and Marcus are in my thoughts for the Partick game.
“Marcus played two games for Canada recently and he has trained well.
“He looks OK so we will see how he goes. He will add a bit of strength and presence up front.
“Looking at the goals he has scored, he nets the majority of them in the box.
“We have missed that – we need somebody who can take a chance and finish.
“We lost a lot of goals out of our team. Goals obviously win you games and that’s something we need to find.”
Meanwhile, Mark O’Hara has had a hernia op and will be out for three weeks with Faissal El Bakhtaoui also set to miss a similar spell after suffering a calf injury against Saints.
