Dundee boss Steven Pressley says he EXPECTED to be booed after competitive debut loss to Championship Airdrie
STEVEN PRESSLEY insists he understands fans booing after his debut defeat to Airdrie.
The new Dundee head coach saw his Dens Park reign get off to the worst possible start as ex-Dundee United kid Chris Mochrie struck for the Diamonds just seven minutes in.
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Steven Pressley made his competitive debut as Dundee manager against Airdrieonians
Credit: Kenny Ramsay
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The Championship side won 1-0 and and the Dee fans booed
Credit: SNS
Pressley's slow-starting side couldn't find the equaliser they pushed for late on, with Airdrie boss Rhys McCabe clearing twice off the line from Billy Koumetio while keeper Cade Melrose made a series of stops.
Honest Elvis admits his team didn't do enough to merit anything - and admitted afterwards everyone at Dens has had a major reality check.
Asked about the fans' jeers, he said: 'I didn't expect anything else.
'When Dundee lose to Airdrie you have to accept you're going to get criticised for it.
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'There's no excuse for the result, we have to be better and improve in so many different areas.
'Sometimes when you come in, there's a freshness and there's that honeymoon period that I've talked about. You can think you are ahead of where you are.
'Today was reality, the real ball came out and all of a sudden we realise 'wow, we have a lot of work to do'.
'It's work on everything - the whole package from all aspects of our performance, bringing in the right types of players, to the physical performance of the team.
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'All of those aspects, we have to improve on. Over the piece we didn't do enough.
'There was a rustiness in some of the players' performances, that's natural at this time of the year. But we wanted to avoid the result we got today.
Watch hilarious moment Scottish football fan dances the Macarena on the pitch behind the back of his jubilant manager
'The games are going to come thick and fast now, so the challenge is for us to get there and I have confidence in the group to do that. With the right additions we can make that progress.
'It's hard to say when we'll get them, we are trying and pushing to find the right solutions but it's not easy.'
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Pressley's side had plenty of the ball early on but couldn't break down Airdrie's defence before getting a warning on 20 mins when the Diamonds worked a slick corner to Alex King for him to shoot.
They got a let-off when that one hit the bar, but Mochrie wasn't as forgiving a minute later latching on to a ball over the top, spinning Ryan Astley then flicking past the badly-exposed Trevor Carson.
Fin Robertson almost equalised with a low drive before half-time but was denied by inspired keeper Cade Melrose, who beat it away at his near post.
Dundee chucked everything at Airdrie during the second half, but couldn't find a way past keeper Melrose or boss Rhys McCabe.
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The stopper denied Cesar Garza with a great block when faced with the Mexican one-on-one, before the player-gaffer popped up twice to clear Koumetio's headers from Robertson corner kicks off the line.
Simon Murray then looked like he was going to level with a quarter-hour left, but Melrose got down to tip his shot wide.
Dundee thought they'd equalised in injury time with a Robertson drive from 16 yards but Craig Ross bravely got his head on it to secure the win.
McCabe said: 'I thought we were comfortable in the game. Dundee had a lot of possession but didn't really look threatening.
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'We scored a well-taken goal, it's something we've worked on so it was good to see it executed.'
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