DUNDEE DEFENDER Matt Lockwood has vowed that the Dark Blues will fight ferociously to try to close the relegation gap.
The SPL basement boys fell nine points behind closest rivals Ross County and St Mirren following a black Boxing Day that saw them lose to Celtic, the Staggies beat Hibs and the Buddies draw with Inverness.
The Dark Blues have appeared to be cast adrift before, only for a fine run of results to put them back in to the survival hunt.
It will be a long, hard slog to recover so much ground again, but Lockwood has declared that Barry Smith’s players can rise to the considerable challenge.
“It is nine points and the teams above us are winning now, which is a problem,” conceded the veteran Englishman.
“But, in saying that, it wasn’t that long ago that we were eight adrift and got it back to a point. So we know we can do it.
“There are some tough games coming up, but they are ones we can win and maybe even have to win.
“The start of the season killed us, when we won only one game out of who knows how many. That put us in this position.
“But we are not going to give up. It is going to be tough because we are coming up against some very good teams.
“We are under no illusions that it is going to be easy to catch up. But we know we have the ability in the dressing room to do it. We want to close that gap.”
Lockwood admitted that the SPL isn’t very easy on the eye at the moment.
“You look at the league table and it’s horrible. You are cut adrift at the bottom and it’s embarrassing really. The quicker you can get points on the board and catch up the better, he said.
“We hope to put pressure on the teams above us because just now even if they lose a game they will probably be thinking that it doesn’t matter because they are still a few points clear of Dundee.”
The Dark Blues initially struggled to cope with a slick Celtic side on Wednesday but there was a period after the break when they rattled Neil Lennon’s team before the visitors grabbed a crucial second goal. That at least gives them some encouragement going into Saturday’s match against Aberdeen at Dens.
“We couldn’t have been any worse in that first half, I thought we were awful,” added Lockwood.
“It seemed that we got overawed by the occasion of playing Celtic and we punted the ball anywhere and gave it away.
“At half-time, the gaffer said to be more confident on the ball and try to pass it. He said that if we did that then we would create chances and that showed in the second half.
“For the first 20 minutes I thought we were excellent. After that I think we ran out of steam a little bit and they cruised to the 2-0 victory.
iroache@thecourier.co.uk