Angus MacDonald was the player put up to speak with the media on Tuesday ahead of the Dons trip to Dens tomorrow.

“We knew before the game Neil was leaving. You don’t get that too often before a big game. But credit to the lads, we were focussed on what we needed to do before we heard the news about the manager. We all knew our jobs, we all stuck together and stayed mentally prepared.

“The message before was go out and win, stop giving silly goals away and be more ruthless and the goals will come. That is what we did.

“We are all professional athletes, and we need to stick to our job.

“There has been a lot of uncertainty throughout the season but the boys have dealt well with that.

“It has been a tough season for me personally, coming in and out of the side quite a lot. Especially after the way I finished last season. It is hard to pick up momentum and hard to pick up match fitness. Luckily I have played the last three games and I now I am starting to feel great and feel confident and hopefully that shows on the pitch now.

“The injury at the start of the season did not help. The boys who were playing were doing well but I continued to work really hard in training so I could show what I can do.

“We put down a marker on Saturday in terms of performance. We can’t take a step back now. We need to move forward. Full respect to Dundee, they have had a strong season. It will be a battle and they will want the three points as much as we do. But we will go down there with a game plan and hopefully we can come out on top. We have to show that we want the points more than they do.

“Everyone wants to bring their A game every weekend. It is not always the case. You have off days. You have bad days. That is football. When the luck is not going for you, the silly mistakes land up costing you more than when the luck is with you.

“We now have two massive games that could turn our league campaign around. None of us are looking backwards. The quality we have in the dressing room, we should not be where we are. We are pulling in the right direction.

“We are taking a big support down there. We need all the fans behind us like they have done all season.”