'They’re a fantastic group': Tony Docherty raves over injury-hit Dundee’s form

Dundee manager Tony Docherty is excited about the remainder of the season after his under-strength side continued their encouraging form by coming so close to a rare win over Celtic.

Dundee came from behind to lead before a stoppage-time penalty from Arne Engels earned Celtic a 3-3 draw and prevented his side suffering a first defeat at Dens Park for 37 years.

Docherty’s team had drawn with Rangers in their previous game and enjoyed wins over St Mirren and St Johnstone in amongst their previous three.

Docherty said: “I thought (we deserved to win) and I thought the same with the previous game, we deserved to win that as well.

“When you factor in the catalogue of injuries that I’ve got at the moment, how threadbare the squad is and how I’m asking boys to really go over and above, they’re giving me that and I think every Dundee fan needs to see that.

“The players are giving absolutely everything for me, for the staff and for their football club. As a manager I could not be more proud of that.

“I used the word admiration for the St Johnstone display and I would use the word heroic for that. They’re a fantastic group of boys and they’ll give you absolutely everything.

“I don’t think we underestimate as well the amount of quality that was in that game as well from our team and I’m just disappointed we don’t get ourselves the three points that I think the performance merited.

“If we continue with that level of performance consistently, we’ll have a really strong finish.”