Kenny Miller insists the Dundee players are determined to “right the wrong” of their embarrassing Scottish Cup replay exit when they travel to face Hamilton in a crunch Premiership clash on Saturday.
The Dark Blues certainly have a lot of making up to do to their fans after their humbling 3-0 defeat against Queen of the South at Palmerston, a result and performance their manager Jim McIntyre branded “embarrassing”.
The two teams had drawn at Dens two Saturdays before but having worked off the rust after the winter break with a stunning league win at Hearts and then a narrow, ill-deserved defeat against Motherwell, Dundee would have travelled south quietly confident they could overcome the Championship side at the second time of asking and make it through to the fifth round.
Instead, they were a distant second on the night with Stephen Dobbie helping himself to a hat-trick with two of his goals resulting directly from defensive howlers from Ryan Inniss and Genseric Kusunga.
Now, though Miller is looking for a big response as Dundee gear up for a huge game with fellow league strugglers Hamilton with the Dark Blues knowing a win would lift them out of the relegation zone.
The former Scotland striker said: “The only way to deal with this is to go away and correct the mistakes that were made.
“But we have to dust ourselves down as we have a huge game on Saturday – it is as simple as that.
“A cup run would have been great and really nice but it is bread and butter stuff on Saturday.
“It is an absolutely huge game against Hamilton. You have to pick yourself up and go again because it is an opportunity for us to win a game and jump away from the relegation play-off spot.
“So that is what we have to focus on. We have a huge game to hopefully right the wrong of this performance.”
Miller insisted that while the Queens result and display was an embarrassment, the team have shown that they can play well and win games when it matters.
However, he insisted the levels of consistency simply have to improve.
He added: “At the end of November, the start of December, we went on a four-game run where we played some really good stuff.
“We had some great results against some really good teams.
“We then go to Tynecastle in the first league game after the break and we deserved the result that night.
“We were very unfortunate on Saturday (against Motherwell) not to come away with something.
“I thought we were marginally the better team so the evidence is there.
“It is about us getting a better level of consistency – the difference in the performance levels is too much.
“You can’t have that discrepancy. If you are not playing well, you can still be solid, you can still be tough and hard to beat. At least make the opposition really earn a result.
“Obviously against Queens that didn’t happen.
“It was frustrating and an embarrassing result for the club. I am disappointed for the fans who came a long way down to hopefully watch us win and support the team.
“So the only thing we can give them is a response and a bounce back on Saturday in a huge game.”
Miller also insisted that while the result against the Doonhamers was obviously not what the team wanted, there was no lack of fight from the players on the night.
He said: “If you look at the season we have had, we have conceded too many goals and not scored enough.
“When we were 2-0 down, there was no real great evidence there to say we would get back in.
“We can try, we can huff and puff but we could have still been playing now and not really created a chance of real substance.
“I wouldn’t say there was a lack of fight.
“At any level of football, goals change games and when you concede the way we have conceded it is always going to be tough to get back into the game at 2-0 down.”
