RESPITE at last. After six consecutive losses in a 10-game winless streak, Dundee finally achieved the victory they craved to ease the pressure on manager Paul Hartley.

The fact that it came in one of the most unattractive contests of the season which was largely devoid of quality will matter little to anyone in the Dens Park camp.

It was Paul McGowan who scored the all-important goal 16 minutes into the second half when his shot from the edge of the box was deflected past Gary Woods.

Hartley raced on to the field at the end and addressed his players in a huddle before celebrating with the Dundee supporters, recognising the importance of three points.

Hartley said: “I’m delighted for the players. No matter what anybody said, we deserved that. The players took responsibility today. It was a game for rolling the sleeves up.

“We’ve had a good week in terms of speaking to one another and some good stuff on the training pitch.

“We were all brutally honest with one another about how we were performing and we said we were going to fix it together and we’re going to fight every day in training and every week.

“It was a different Dundee team today – it was a team where we wanted it. The attitude was great all over the pitch and we thoroughly deserved that.”

The victory was all the more admirable as Dundee could have rued two excellent first half chances.

Spanish defender Julen Extabeguren should have scored with a header from Tom Hateley’s corner in six minutes but missed the target.

Then Craig Wighton was equally wasteful two minutes later when he was played in by James Vincent but hit a left foot shot past the left post.

These misses could have been so costly to Paul Hartley and his team but thankfully for him they did not.

In truth Dundee were fairly comfortable defensively all day as Hamilton failed to build on their impressive midweek win over Aberdeen,

And when they took the lead in the 61st minute there was an air of inevitability that they would not recover.

Dundee won a free kick on the left side of the Accies box. Kevin Holt played a decent ball in which was not effectively cleared by Georgios Sarris.

Invitingly it dropped on the edge of the area for McGowan who might have just have miss-hit his shot a little – and it also hit Marcus Haber and Accies captain Mikey Devlin – but it ended up in the back of the net.

The relief on the Dundee bench was palpable as they suddenly realised their miserable run might just be coming to an end.

They were dogged and determined to not let their lead slip, but they were scarcely troubled.

The galling aspect for Martin Canning was that his side failed to create one opportunity to draw level.

However, he knows that Ali Crawford’s miss after just 30 seconds was pivotal even that early in the game as it would have deflated Dundee.

Dundee did not deal with Greg Docherty’s ball into the box but Crawford could not keep his shot down.

Manager Martin Canning said: “We had a great chance in the first minute and we’ve got to score. I told the players at half-time that we had to take that chance.

“Ali Crawford has been one of our top performers this year and chipped in with some big goals.

“But with us starting this game on a high and Dundee being on a low, had we gone ahead in the opening 30 seconds it would have totally changed the outcome of the game. It was a big moment.

“There’s no point in them getting themselves up for Aberdeen, Celtic or Rangers coming here but letting Dundee leave with all three points.

“You’ve got to churn out a performance and set your own levels of consistency. Ultimately, that’s what moves players on from here to play at a higher level – it’s been proven.

“But today gave us a kick and brought us back down to earth and let us know there’s an awful lot of hard work to be done.”