Tony Docherty confident Dundee have recovered from 6-0 drubbings

Tony Docherty is adamant Dundee have recovered from their “bump in the road” earlier this month and still have every opportunity to ensure a fruitful season.

The Dark Blues have slipped to 10th in the William Hill Premiership after losing their last two league games 6-0 against Hearts and Celtic, but they are only four points outside the top six and within six points of Europe with eight games remaining before the split.

Dundee bounced back from those back-to-back heavy defeats with a 4-0 home win over Airdrie to reach the quarter-finals of the Scottish Cup, where they have been drawn to face Hearts, and Docherty stressed that his side still have plenty to play for.

“We’re in a position where we’re really kind of masters of our own destiny,” he said. “If we can put in a consistent level of performance, then we’ll give ourselves a chance at going from what’s been a decent season to a really good season.

“It’s good timing that we’ve got a lot of the injuries back and we’ve got a really competitive, strong squad, because we’re going to need that over these coming games. We got through a period there where we were threadbare. Now we’re stronger, and we need everybody’s shoulder to the wheel.

“There’s eight games to go and that’s outwith the cup. It’s important we give it a real push and try to show that consistency that hopefully will lead to the results that will get us there.”

While much was made of the two chastening 6-0 defeats, Docherty believes his side have generally been in good form since Christmas.

“I think in context, you look at our last six league fixtures, that we had in adversity where we had a really threadbare squad,” said the Dee boss, whose side host Aberdeen on Saturday. “We played Celtic twice, we played Rangers, we played Dundee United. So in these six games, we played four against the top three, and just before that, we had really important away wins against St Mirren and St Johnstone.

“So, yes, we had a bump in the road, no doubt about it, with the Hearts game and then the difficult Celtic game, but I think it was important to get back on track. And I think we did that on Saturday with our cup performance against Airdrie.

“With that tough run of fixtures we had, it was just about coming into this run of fixtures and making sure we were still in touch with the teams round about us, and we are at the moment with big games coming up.”