Steven Pressley has accepted that Dundee’s away record has to improve. The Dark Blues get set to cross the road for the derby on Saturday evening. Dundee won just two away games in the Premiership last season and their head coach accepts that is an area where they need to improve. The good thing was that one of those away wins did come at Tannadice back in the New Year derby win, thanks to Ash Hay’s goal.
Pressley on away improvements
Pressley stated: “Away from home we need to improve, we need to be more aware and be better. That is my responsibility, to ensure we grow as a team and understand the things we have to do away from home to get results.
“When you’re away from home you have to reverse the momentum at times nullify the atmosphere. The management of games at certain times is always important, knowing what to do in those moments.
“So there are things within games we can do better, that’s what we have to work on and educate the players around. There’s no doubt in terms of results, we have to get better away from home.
“The performances in the two away games so far have been positive but you need to get outcomes from them. It’s small details and becoming better at various little things will help us get results.”
Lessons from Aberdeen defeat
Dundee go in after their weekend visit to Aberdeen ended their Premier Sports Cup campaign. It was in sharp contrast to the week before, where, with home form, they comprehensively sunk the Dons. Pressley didn’t think there was too much difference in the performances other than some costly mistakes. It is all about learning lessons. It also came at a cost with Simon Murray injured.
Pressley explained: “It’s funny because our physical markers were higher at Pittodrie than they were in the game before.
“We actually ran harder in last weekend’s match than in the game we won - but we just made one or two mistakes we didn’t make in previous games.
“I think we actually played really well in the first half, we did a number of good things and created a lot of opportunities.
“But I don’t think we responded well to losing the first goal and had a period when we lost our way.
“That aside, there were a lot of good things within the performance.
“We lost the game 3-0 but we ran hard and did a lot of the things we’re asking the players to do.
“But it’s about learning, it’s a lesson for us.”
