Paul McGinn has admitted that Dundee’s season is precariously poised between success and failure.
And if the Dark Blues are to secure top six football, and possibly even qualify for Europe, there can be no dwelling on last weekend’s crushing Scottish Cup disappointment at Ibrox.
With Dundee currently hovering around the Premiership split line, McGinn knows the importance of getting a good result against Hearts this afternoon.
“It’s been a long week,” he said.
“We just need to get back out there. It was a funny old week. We were on such a high after the result at Parkhead then to go so low just sums up football, to be honest.
“We can’t dwell on it. You look at St Johnstone winning the other night and it looked like Partick were going to as well.
“It’s so tight and we need wins.
“There was a massive feeling we didn’t do ourselves justice last week. They came out flying and the last thing we wanted was to get the crowd going by giving them a goal so quickly.
“The confidence went right through them. The only spell we had in the game was before half-time. We could have done a bit better with a couple of chances.
“But we were miles off. They deserved to beat us.
“It as a big chance to get to a semi-final and not far off a full house. It was a sore one to take because we know we could do better. The fans came out in big numbers at Ibrox and we wanted to do so much better.”
McGinn hasn’t allowed himself to start dreaming about Europa League qualifiers when getting into the top six is still in the balance.
“Fourth is still there but there are so many teams in the mix,” the former Dumbarton man said. “It’s about getting top six first and then trying to push from there.
“We’ve not really mentioned Europe yet. It won’t become a thing for us until the last few games.
“We just want to finish as high as we can and anything else is a bonus.
“It’s so tight. We’ve seen so many teams who have gone on bad runs but then a couple of wins sends them right up.
“There’s not much between us but we need to show we are better than the others in there.
“I don’t think anyone is the favourite to be honest.
“But I would back our squad. We have goals in the team and we’ve tightened up at the back.
“We need to put the cup behind us. We are seven unbeaten in the league and if we can keep that going hopefully we’ll be in the top six.”
Dundee have yet to beat Hearts this season, and McGinn is under no illusions about the threat they will pose at Dens Park today.
“Hearts can mix it up and they can be a bit more direct at times,” he said. “They play in and around your box.
“They are doing really well and we know what kind of threat they will be.”
McGinn is out of contract in the summer but he’s in no rush to get a new deal sorted.
“There’s nothing yet,” he said. “There’s a few of us in the same boat but it’s a case of waiting to sort it towards the end of the season.”
Julen Etxabeguren will miss today’s game with a shoulder injury.