Steven Pressley urges Dundee forwards to lighten burden on Simon Murray

Steven Pressley has challenged Dundee’s other forwards to chip in with more goals while talismanic captain Simon Murray is enduring a barren spell.

The 33-year-old was the joint second-highest scorer in the Premiership last term, with 16 league goals and 22 in all competitions.

At a time when Murray – hindered by injury earlier this term – has scored only one league goal so far and has not notched since September, Dundee have failed to score in four of their last six matches.

“I said this on Tuesday to the players, we can’t be solely reliant on Simon Murray,” said manager Pressley. “Of course Simon wants to score more goals and I’m confident the goals will come for Simon. He’s working tirelessly and his performances are improving.

“But I think that we’ve got so many other players that need to step forward now and contribute in the goals. We’ve been quite effective on set-plays, quite a number of our goals have been scored by defenders.

“But we need more from our offensive players in terms of that final action, that final goal.

“We need to have more devilment. We need to have more desire when we’re arriving in the box.

“We’re crossing a lot, we’re getting into some really good positions. But just that final moment, we need to be better on.

“We’re doing a lot of good things. But within the group, we must have people stepping forward and scoring those all-important goals.”

Dundee’s lack of goals has contributed to them losing six of their last seven games and slipping to second-bottom of the table ahead of Saturday’s trip to last-placed Livingston.

“I think Livingston are a team like ourselves, where I don’t think they’ve gained the points that some of their performances have deserved,” said Pressley.

“They’ve impressed me in the games that I’ve watched of them, so this is a game that’s going to take a really, really top performance from ourselves to win.”