'Nothing else will do' - Jordan Marshall maps out Dundee salvage bid after 'bitter-sweet' St Johnstone draw

Jordan Marshall’s manager at Dundee tried to lighten the mood during the week with talk of radiators, diets and stripping off ahead of facing his side’s closest rivals at the bottom of the Premiership table.

After the 1-1 draw at home to St Johnstone for Mark McGhee’s team, the goal-scoring defender is much more blunt and serious than his boss had been. He, and his team-mates, simply must start winning games he says. Nothing else will do.

In a stirring first-half against their relegation rivals they thought they were on course but his opener was cancelled out by Shaun Rooney in the second half. Sharing the points after a spirited start was a “bitter-sweet” outcome for Marshall.

"We are realists,” he added. “But it's not done at the end of the day. Stranger things have happened in football and we have got to keep working hard and fighting.

"We are five points adrift so nothing less than four wins will do. We've said that in the dressing room that draws aren't good enough. We need to win all of those four games. We have to go for it in every one.

"Of course it's possible. We have players in there that make us a good team, a very good team. We just haven't shown it consistently enough. We have played well in stages and bad at other times and it's cost us. There's real quality in there but for whatever reason, it just hasn't clicked."

The heat is on, even if McGhee’s was off during the week. In Dundee’s favour perhaps, and giving their situation a glimmer of hope, are the struggles of the teams above them.

Aberdeen and St Mirren – their next two opponents – are ten points away but their recent form of one win in the past two months mirrors the Dark Blues' and both the bottom two are aiming to drag the Dons and Buddies back.

Jordan Marshall (L) was all smiles in the first half but a 1-1 draw was 'bitter-sweet' for Dundee. (Photo by Paul Devlin / SNS Group)

"It's not over yet because we still have games against teams around us and we have got to try and put the pressure on them,” Marshall added. "The teams above us are similar to us because they have not really been winning many games.

"[Aberdeen] are a good team, but we have already beaten them this season and showed good fight against them here to come back and draw.

"Nothing less than three points will do and we’ll be going to Pittodrie to try and get them."

Both are in St Johnstone’s sights too – with Marshall’s win-all mentality shared along the southern stretch of the A90.

Dundee manager Mark McGhee (R) and assistant Simon Rusk. (Photo by Paul Devlin / SNS Group)

“I think we can go and win all the games we’ve got left,” Saints’ midfielder Melker Hallberg echoed. “There’s no point playing if we don’t have that mindset. We’ll make sure we keep working to do that.

“We don’t want to have another first-half like that when we play St Mirren next week. I don’t really know why that happened, whether it was a little bit of nerves maybe.

“It’s hard to know if we’re disappointed with a point but we take every one we get. At half-time we were a goal down and it shows the character in the team that we turned things around.

“We know what we’ve got to do and we’re all in this together."