Jim McAlister did not mince his words when he admitted that Saturday’s dismal Dens defeat to Cowdenbeath was the “kick up the backside” Dundee may have needed.
Prior to kick-off, it was no surprise John Brown’s side were firm favourites to take all three points having gone to the top of the Championship table last week while the Fife outfit are involved in a relegation dogfight.
However, the Blue Brazil thoroughly deserved their victory against a Dundee side who looked anything but title contenders, let alone winners.
Cowdenbeath were by far the better team on the day, and could even afford to miss a first-half penalty when Kane Hemmings’ spot-kick was saved.
The same player made up for that error by giving Jimmy Nicholl’s team the lead and although they were pegged back by a fine McAlister goal, they again nosed in front and took all three points thanks to a counter from sub Jordan Morton.
McAlister, who was one of the few Dundee players who could hold his head high after the defeat, admitted the Dark Blues just never got going and paid the price.
The defeat was a real double whammy, with Hamilton going back top despite only drawing with Livingston and it also brought to an end Dundee’s unbeaten home league record.
McAlister said: “That was extremely disappointing. It was a fantastic opportunity for us especially when we came off at the end and heard the results from elsewhere.
“We have taken pride in our home league record as well so to go out and perform like that was very dispiriting.
“It is maybe the kick up the backside we need. We went top last week but that’s when the hard work really starts, to stay there.
“We didn’t want to give that position up lightly but after that performance, we have.
“I can’t really put my finger on what went wrong. I think in most games you need six, seven or eight boys really at the races and we didn’t have that.
“We got out of jail with the penalty and we did the same again when we went one down but managed to get back into the game.
“At 1-1, you are thinking, ‘right we will finally start playing’, but instead we got hit with the sucker punch again.
“As I said, we have taken pride in what we have done at Dens in the league. We have ground results out sometimes and when we saw the conditions, we thought we go out, knuckle down and if we win 1-0 we will take it but we just never got started.”
McAlister’s downbeat mood was in sharp contrast to that of former Rangers striker Hemmings, whose goal took his total for the season to 13 but, more importantly, it helped the Blue Brazil secure what he hopes can prove in the long run to be a priceless three points.
He said: “We knew it wouldn’t be easy coming to Dens and we were aware they were strong favourites but every single one of us has rolled our sleeves up, gave it the best we had and we have secured a victory at the end of it.
“Hopefully, that three points we will us get to where we want to be.
“At the penalty, I thought it was a bad miss from me. I had been taking pens during the week and I felt comfortable taking them.
“When I was running up, I was going to put it in the corner I normally would but then I just thought I would put it the other way. I just didn’t hit it right and the keeper saved it.
“However, I won’t have a problem taking the next one we are given.
“At my goal, I was convinced the defender was going to kick it away but I just kept on running and stabbed it into the net.
“That’s the sort of gamble you have to take as a striker. I would have been disappointed with myself if I hadn’t.
“You are always worried when a team like Dundee get one back but, apart from that, I can’t really remember them having too many clear-cut opportunities.
“When we were going forward, we were causing them a lot of problems and thankfully for us, Jordan popped up with the second goal and we held on.
“Hopefully, we can kick on now. We have another tough game against Raith Rovers next week but we can take a lot of confidence from this result.”