Dundee v Hearts: John Brown enjoying testing St Mirren’s mettle

John Brown has proved his critics wrong with Dundee returning a strong series of results under his command.SNS Group

Dundee boss John Brown believes if his side can extend their SPL survival for another week, then the heat will really be on relegation rivals St Mirren.

With the Dark Blues sitting 10 points behind the Buddies with just four games left, they need to win their remaining matches while hoping other sides do them a favour.

To fulfil their part in the “great escape” this weekend, Dundee have to overcome a tricky hurdle in the shape of Hearts at Dens while hoping that the Jambos’ Edinburgh rivals Hibs beat St Mirren at Easter Road.

If that scenario pans out, then Brown — confirmed on Friday as Dundee's new permanent boss — feels it could become “squeaky bum” time for Danny Lennon’s side.

He said: “Somebody said to me that Hearts are a young team but if you go through the spine of their side, they have a lot of senior boys like Andy Webster who have been round the block.

“Up front, John Sutton and Michael Ngoo are a real handful. We will have to deal with their physicality, otherwise we will be on the back foot.

“Our centre-halves need to do a job on them. If we can nullify them, then it will go a long way to getting a result.

“We know we will be in for a tough game. If we don’t win it, we are down but we just have to concentrate on doing our job and then look at the result elsewhere.

“It must be difficult though for St Mirren. They had the high of winning the League Cup and must have been looking forward to going on their summer holidays.

“Suddenly they are in a relegation battle so if we can keep it going for another week, then you never know — the pressure could start to tell on them and it really will become squeaky bum time.”

Brown has manufactured a transformation in Dundee’s fortunes since he took over with the Dark Blues having only lost once in their last seven league games, to high-flying Motherwell.

However, while he is deserving of plaudits for masterminding the turnaround, “Bomber” preferred to praise his predecessor Barry Smith for putting together a quality squad.

Brown said: “It is another week when people thought we would be down but the lads are in great spirits and confidence is high in the camp.

“They are playing without any fear. I told them when I came in to forget about the points gap and to show they were better than what people were saying about them.

“I told them to go and show they are not First Division players and they have done that in every game.

“When I came in there were a few heads down because the previous manager Barry had signed them all. Even in the offices, heads were down as he had been here for a number of years.

“But once we were on the training park, I told them to go and show people Barry had an eye for a player and I think they have proved he picked a good squad.

“I just had to put a bit of positivity into them. I said at the start that we are going to get beat in games but let’s have a go and we will win a few. It has paid off.”

Taken from The Courier