Steven Pressley calls for patience ahead of his Premiership debut as Dundee boss

Steven Pressley delivered a dose of realism and a lesson from his opponents as he prepared for his William Hill Premiership debut as Dundee head coach.

Pressley experienced a turbulent start to life at Dens Park when defeats by Airdrie and Alloa ended Dundee’s hopes of Premier Sports Cup progress after just two matches.

Dundee moved forward with the help of eight goals in two wins over Bonnyrigg Rose and Montrose but Pressley cautioned that patience was still very much needed ahead of Sunday’s visit of Hibernian.

“I think people think that us managers can come in and change things immediately,” he said.

“We can’t. It takes time, it takes process, it takes working on the training field relentlessly before you really start to see the signs.

“I’ve seen us moving in the direction, but we’re nowhere near where we need to be and that will happen only through time on the training ground.

“I’m realistic on the whole situation. We’re not going to get anywhere near where we need to be short term. It’s going to take time, it’s going to take a real resilience from us and a real work ethic to get there.

“But every day on the training ground, every game, we hope we can see elements of improvement and certainly come Sunday we hope that we’re another step forward from the Montrose game.”

Pressley referenced the “terrific” work of Hibs head coach David Gray in his debut season as evidence of how teams can come good with patience.

Hibs were bottom of the Premiership going into the final day of November last year before finishing third in the table.

“It shows you that when you work towards something, there’s always challenges, there’s always difficulties, as he experienced,” Pressley said.

“But sometimes if you keep working that way and working towards a process, things can change and that’s what they did.

“The other thing was that Hibs as a football club deserve credit for sticking by him during that difficult period and they got their just rewards.

“He’s shown great resilience, great leadership and they were rewarded with a really strong campaign.”