Tony Docherty admits his Dundee players need to go “over and above” if they are to take anything from Rangers on Thursday night.
The Taysiders go into the Scottish Premiership clash on the back of a 3-1 win over rivals St Johnstone at McDiarmid Park on Sunday which took them to within two points of the top six.
However, the Dark Blues have recent experience of how different a game against Rangers usually is having lost 1-0 at Ibrox on December 21 and although Philippe Clement’s side have not been at their best on their travels this season, the Dundee boss believes a huge effort from his side is required.
“You know the disparity in terms of the finances and budgets and the players you are playing against,” said Docherty, who is “absolutely delighted” to sign former loanee Aaron Donnelly on a three-and-a-half-year deal from Nottingham Forest.
“But when the whistle blows, when you analyse the opponents, you do have to get a lot of things right.
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“You do need to have eight or nine playing at the top of their game to look to get something from a team as good as Rangers.
“But that’s something that we drill into the players and it is something we have shown in abundance recently, that mentality, that it is all about going over and above for your team-mate when you are on the pitch.
“If you have to match that run or help someone out in a situation, you do that and that is the mentality we are trying to foster and develop in here and I see it developing on a weekly basis. You have to be a team in every sense of the word.
“It will be difficult. They have got a really talented team. They have got a good manager.
“When we went down to Ibrox four games ago we put in a very strong performance defensively, we probably should have got more credit for that.
“And opportunities presented themselves in the game where we could have been more clinical.
“You need to be sound defensively and carry a threat in terms of counter-attack and hopefully, as we did on Sunday, execute a game plan that gives us an opportunity to pick up points.”
