McCann has lifted Dundee's spirits - Bain

Dundee goalkeeper Scott Bain believes new manager Neil McCann has given the players a lift after setting a target of a seventh-placed finish.

A run of seven consecutive defeats cost Paul Hartley his job and Dundee travel to Motherwell on Saturday in 11th position in the Ladbrokes Premiership.

But McCann has told his players to aim high.

Bain said: Look, we lost seven in a row. It's not great and no-one is going to be happy about it, but we were never down in the dumps where we thought we couldn't get out of it.

But I have definitely seen a lift from myself and from other players since the new manager has come in.

He's come in and been very positive. He's been very instructive about what he wants us to do and the boys have really bought into what he is trying to achieve now.

The whole vibe now is we are going to be positive and basically try and finish top of this league we are in. Now it's the bottom six, we want to finish seventh, as high as we can. It's been great.

It's a mini-league and we play all the teams round about us, and we want to finish top of that, we want to finish seventh.

There's no point looking at the rest of the season. We have had bad results, we have had results that were great, we threw away results, we have had good results where we came back.

But all that doesn't really matter now, all that matters is these five games and getting as high up the league as we possibly can.''

Hartley led Dundee to promotion and then the top six the following season but he paid the price for their recent poor run, and Bain admitted he was not surprised.

At the end of the day it's football and it happens every week, whatever time of the season it is,'' the 25-year-old said.

The big thing is that we stay up for Paul, but for ourselves and also for the club and for the new manager. We need to be 100 per cent and fully focused on these next five games.''

Bain was Hartley's first-choice goalkeeper for more than five years of his managerial career at Alloa and then Dundee.

The pair were Aberdeen team-mates before Hartley signed the goalkeeper twice but Bain did not find it hard to move on from the sudden departure of the former Scotland midfielder.

Not really,'' he said.To be honest I've not really thought about it. The only thing that I've really thought about is being focused on these next games. They are hugely important for the club.

Like I said, it is football, it happens all the time.

But on the other side I think change is sometimes good and fresh ideas are good, and a different perspective on things can be good. Time will tell but I have seen a positive reaction.''