Adam Legzdins believes struggling Dundee need only look back to last season for inspiration as they bid to ignite their cinch Premiership campaign.
The Dens Park side go into this Saturday’s home match against Aberdeen at the foot of the table after winning none of their opening eight matches.
While goalkeeper Legzdins acknowledges results have not been good enough, he is keen to point out that last term his team won only two of their opening eight matches in the Championship and ended up winning promotion through the play-offs.
He is adamant the Dark Blues will enjoy a similar upturn in the months ahead.
Legzdins said: “We’ve got good experience, really good characters and really good people here from players to management. You look around and want to do well for the people you’re working with.
“That’s an important thing that can sometimes be lost in dressing rooms when you go on a run like this, but that’s certainly not the case here. Last year we faced a lot of adversity after a not-so-great start and we turned it round.
“That same group of players with the same great qualities and character are still here, and we’ve improved if anything. Times of adversity is when you really find out about people and I’ve got every faith in the people I share a dressing room with.
“We’ve shown before and we’ll show it again that we can turn things round. We’ll look back on this as a challenging time and take pride from how we turned things round. The lads are in good spirits. We’ve had things we needed to work at and the international break has given us the chance to do that.”
Legzdins takes heart from Dundee’s performance levels, with the exception of the last match away to St Johnstone when they were defeated 3-1.
The 34-year-old Englishman said: “There’s certainly no lack of confidence in the team. We’d have wanted results to be better but on the whole our performances have been at a high level and we can take confidence from that, knowing that if we can replicate those performances we’ve got more chance of getting good results.
“It would be more frustrating if we weren’t playing well and we weren’t picking up results. I’d much rather be losing games but having decent performances because that shows that we’re nearly there.
“As long as performances are high, hopefully results will follow. If performances weren’t high and were all like the one we had at St Johnstone, when we let ourselves down, then we’d be less likely to pick up results.”
Legzdins dismissed any suggestion that the ongoing bonus dispute between Dundee’s players and managing director John Nelms is affecting form.
He said: “Listen, that’s something that will get dealt with. It’s not something we’re focusing on at all. Our focus is purely on improving our performances and looking to get results.
“That’s not something the players are worried about and it’s not something that’s taking any of our focus away.”
