The last thing Roarie Deacon expected was to come back into a Dundee side without a win or a point, and rock bottom of the Premiership table.
Two out of those three have been put right and the comeback winger is determined to make sure the third doesn’t remain the case for much longer.
Deacon played his part in helping the Dark Blues secure a much-needed victory at Hamilton last weekend, setting up the second goal in injury-time after coming on as a substitute just a few minutes earlier.
It certainly beats watching from the stand as his team-mates suffered some undeserved results in his absence.
Deacon admitted he was shocked by the start to the season Dundee had made.
“I’m very surprised,” he said. “Everyone is surprised.
“No way did we think we’d do well in pre-season but then have no points on the board after six games.
“However, after Hamilton everyone is positive.
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“You can’t not be. The way we’ve been playing, we’ve been creating chances and playing well despite not getting points.
“Everyone is buzzing in training, raring to go and wanting to do well for Dundee.”
Deacon’s early season frustrations were a consequence of an injury picked up in the last game of the previous campaign.
He said: “I had ankle surgery the first week into pre-season.
“I twisted it and damaged ankle ligaments in the game against Partick and through the summer it didn’t heal itself.
“Initially the surgeon didn’t want to operate but it didn’t heal so we made the decision to go under the knife to sort it out.
“I was supposed to be back a little earlier than this but on the first session back I re-injured my thigh, which was a problem I had last season. So I needed a bit of intense rehabilitation on that to get back.
“Now though, I’m fit and ready to go.”
