News: Paul Hartley Encouraged By Dundee’S Frustration

[TheDarkBlues]

They took the plaudits but Dundee were bitterly disappointed by their narrow defeat at champions Celtic on Saturday.

And that’s what pleased boss Paul Hartley most.

While others might have been happy to have simply avoided a hammering at Parkhead, the Dark Blues were gutted about going down 2-1.

That’s exactly the attitude their manager wants.

“We should have taken something. I felt on the first-half performance we were excellent,” he said.

“I thought we created good chances and I thought we came here with a good game plan.

“The players are really disappointed they didn’t take anything from the game because they know they could have.

“We had some fantastic situations, we were just a little bit wasteful in the final third.

“We are also disappointed with the goals we lost, particularly the first, because we knew Celtic were dangerous from set-pieces and we’d worked on that.

“But Celtic will end up winning the league and, over the two games we’ve played them, we’ve shown we’re not a bad team.

“I have a really talented bunch of players in there. Some of their football was terrific.”

The gaffer also praised his board of directors for finding the money to sign scoring sensation David Clarkson.

Clarkson’s second-half strike means he’s scored in his first seven Dundee games, breaking a club record set by Davie McLean 92 years ago.

Strikes against Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup this weekend and when Inverness visit a week later would see him match the all-time Dundee record of goals in consecutive games, set by Johnny Bell early in the 1920-21 season.

Whatever happens, Paul is just delighted the board found the cash to get the ex-Motherwell man.

“David’s on a great run of form and he’s been a terrific find for us.

“We all knew about him anyway, it was just trying to get him in.

“He was in at three or four clubs but we understand the finances are tight and they’re tight at our club also.

“The board here managed to stretch the budget a little bit and we’ve taken him in.

“We’ve got him until the end of the season and we are trying to keep him longer than that because he always scores goals.”

Source: Evening Telegraph

[Derry Drummer]

Good to see Paul being honest.

[JoeCovenant]

Good to see Paul being honest.

The mark of the best, top managers...

[Derry Drummer]

The mark of the best, top managers...

Top guy aswell, very genuine.

Really hope he is here 9/10 years.