Tony Docherty wants Dundee to take positives from performance in Rangers defeat

Tony Docherty believes Dundee can take positives from their 3-0 defeat by Rangers into next week’s William Hill Premiership game against Aberdeen.

A double at Ibrox from striker Cyriel Dessers and a penalty from skipper James Tavernier sent the Light Blues into the Premier Sports Cup semi-finals.

The Dens Park outfit had their moments, with Simon Murray, Seb Palmer-Houlden and Scott Tiffoney all missing good chances, but ultimately it is two games without a win for the Taysiders after starting the season nine games unbeaten.

Docherty will start preparing his side for the visit of the Dons, who beat Spartans 4-0 in their Premier Sports Cup quarter-final to make it 11 straight wins in all competitions since the start of the season, and he will do so with optimism.

He said: “When you lose a game, you want to show a reaction and I did see that this week in training, from last weekend.

“And we go into a difficult game next, Aberdeen coming to our place, and they’re in buoyant mood. So we need to make sure that as a squad we keep resolute.

“We’re not a bad team. We don’t become a bad team overnight. We were playing against really tough opponents at a tough venue.

“But again I want my standards and the squads’ standards to remain high and I want to make sure that we give ourselves every opportunity to win games.

“We do score of goals and we had the opportunities. We had to take them and it was pivotal moments in the game.

“They’re an honest bunch, they are a hard-working bunch. We’ll go back, we’ll address it on Monday and we’ll get set for the next game.

“As I say, they’re honest, so they accept those things that we need to do better.

“But I do take a bit of satisfaction. I thought we kept the ball well at times. I thought we made good decisions.

“We created good opportunities that on another day we score because we do score a lot of goals.

“So there is positives to be taken from the game, but I am disappointed because I do want this club to get to the latter stages of cup competitions.”