Neil McCann refuses to throw players under the bus after home defeat
Neil McCann has shouldered responsibility for his Dundee team's comprehensive 4-1 defeat at home to bottom club Ross County.
The Staggies were six points adrift in the Ladbrokes Premiership and went into the game on the back of a 13-match winless run that stretched back to the start of November, but they produced a fine display to see off Dee.
The result gives Owen Coyle's side renewed hope of closing the gap, and McCann admitted it had been a poor performance from his players, who were second best throughout.
'I'm not just going to throw the boys under the bus,' he said. 'I made mistakes today as well and I will take responsibility for some of the mistakes that I made.
'Together we will certainly have to look at that and see ourselves how bad that was, because that's not good enough and I can only apologise to the fans because that doesn't sit well with me and I know it doesn't sit well with them and I'm pretty sure it doesn't sit well with the players.''
Davis Keillor-Dunn, who despite a broken nose produced a fine performance, opened the scoring with a curling effort before Kerr Waddell equalised soon after.
However, Alex Schalk forced an error out of Lewis Spence to put County back in front and he doubled his tally minutes later to put them out of sight before Tim Chow capped the performance late on with a fourth.
McCann admitted his players were off the pace throughout, and were at fault for gifting away the goals.
He said: 'I think the second goal was indicative of our play today in terms of taking negative passes, not looking purposeful when we had and not being positive enough when we had it.
'We put ourselves under pressure and lost a sloppy goal and it had a bit of an effect on us.
For the Staggies it was a big win after such a long spell without a win, and it has given Coyle and his players belief they can pull themselves out of trouble.
'It had to come and had to come and had to come quickly,' he said. 'In all my years as a player, coach and manager, the longer it goes the more difficult it gets and some of the results have been harsh on us, but with the experience, you are able to put across that consistent message.
'What was really good today was that, having got the goal and then conceding, it was the character they showed from that because that was the point where you see it.
'When you're on those runs it's easy to say, 'here we go again' but the quality we showed and the finishes were outstanding.'