Dundee’s Luke McCowan out to emulate Ayr raid as he admits Dee let themselves down at Partick Thistle

Dundee let themselves down against Partick Thistle on Saturday accepts Luke McCowan.

The 0-0 draw allowed leaders Queen’s Park to open up a seven-point lead at the top of the Championship.

The Dark Blues, though, can immediately cut that to four points in their game in hand on Tuesday night at home to Ayr United.

McCowan says Dundee must start putting more pressure on the Spiders, starting against his old side.

Frustrating

But they need more of a goal threat than they displayed at Firhill.

“Ayr is a big game, as was Saturday, and every game now is a big one,” the winger said.

“We just need to look forward to that and be better in the final third. If we can do that then we’ll pick up points.

“The most frustrating thing is we know how good we can be in the final third at times but at Firhill we let ourselves down, myself included.

“When those moments come we need to have a bit of composure to find the back of the net or be working their goalie but we didn’t do that well enough.

“As a group, as tough as it is to say, you just look forward to the next one and keep pushing.

“It’s obviously frustrating with Queen’s Park coming away with a result but we just need to keep focusing on ourselves and it’s a situation that you keep going until it’s mathematically impossible.

“So we just need to keep believing and look forward to the next game.

“We’ve gone this far in the season and there’s no point thinking they have run away with it.

“We know they have got tough games coming at the end of the season, as do we.

“We just need to put pressure on them, that’s all we want to do.”

Replicate

Possibly Dundee’s – and McCowan’s – best day of the season came in their last clash with Ayr United.

A 2-0 win at Somerset Park saw the Dark Blues spend Christmas top of the Championship table with a seventh straight win in all competitions.

However, that was short lived with form in 2023 falling away.

McCowan, though, is keen to emulate that performance at Somerset Park this week on home turf.

“We knew how big a game that was, especially going down to 10 men, and hopefully we can replicate it and I get the two goals again,” he added.

“The message is to keep going, don’t stop.”