Neil McCann is hoping that Andy Boyle and Ryan Inniss will give his Dundee team the “settled bond” he wants at the heart of his defence.
The pair were impressive in the 2-0 win at Hamilton on Saturday, their second match as a partnership.
Boyle, on loan from Preston North End, scored the opening goal for the Dark Blues, while Inniss, farmed out by Crystal Palace, was a commanding presence next to him when Accies pushed for an equaliser.
Centre-back has been a position of instability for McCann so far this season, with Steven Caulker, Josh Meekings, Genseric Kusunga and Darren O’Dea all getting league starts.
But that could be about to change given the encouraging form of Boyle and Inniss.
“They were two of the boys who came in right at the end of the window,” said McCann.
“Big Ryan is a colossus. Anything that comes into the box in the air, you fancy him to win it.
“He was against (Frederik) Brustad and then big (Rakish) Bingham. He and Andy had to deal with some meaty headers.
“The two of them stood up manfully against Hamilton.
“I thought Boyley looked composed.
“Those two boys haven’t had a great deal of first team football. Boyley’s come from Preston, having not played.
“Our centre-backs have been a bit in and out – Darren (O’Dea) came in against Rangers without playing any first team football. We haven’t had that settled bond you want.”
Meanwhile, Boyle has been impressed with McCann’s demeanour in Dundee’s time of crisis pre-Hamilton.
“The manager has been brilliant,” he said. “We’ve all taken a bit of flak but he’s been positive and kept on encouraging us to play.
“He’s been very brave. It would have been easy to revert to a safer style and go long but he has stuck to his guns and we reaped the benefits of it on Saturday.
“Have I seen any signs of him being under stress? No, not really. At training, everyone has been positive around the place. You wouldn’t guess from walking round the place that we had lost seven games on the spin from looking at folk.
“Saturday was a much better feeling coming off the pitch than we’ve had in past weeks. We just need to kick this on now.”
