Steven Pressley admitted a dream came true for him after Joe Westley played a key role in Dundee’s vital victory over St Mirren.
The Dark Blues boss had gone to bed on Thursday with his selection sorted but changed his mind and recalled the 21-year-old Englishman.
It paid off with Westley netting a superb goal late on to seal the much-needed win.
Dundee had gone behind to a Mikael Mandron goal but bounced back thanks to an Alex Gogic own goal and a Drey Wright cracker before Westley added the third.
The result ended a run of four defeats in a row and relieved some of the pressure on under-fire boss Pressley.
The 52-year-old said: “I’m obviously very pleased, I told the boys in the dressing-room a true story after the game.
“I went to bed on Thursday with a team in my mind but I woke at 2am with something telling me to play someone different.
“I came in on Friday and told the staff that something had planted it in my mind.
“I did it and it worked out well – I’m just glad my dream was right!
“The player was Joe Westley – he’s trained immensely, he was outstanding all week, and is a player with goals.
“He’s a goalscorer, we have missed that of late, he brings energy and a desire to score goals.
“We don’t have a lot of players with a history of goals so we’re trying to improve players.
“The missing ingredient has been the winning mindset and we had that today.
“St Mirren put us under pressure but we stood up to it really well.
“We want to grow but when you are doing that you need time and to get that you need results like today’s.”
Buddies boss Stephen Robinson did not pull his punches when he spoke to his players in the dressing-room at full-time telling them that they are in a relegation battle.
The manager said: “We have pussy-footed around it a little bit because you can’t shout at people these days or you’ll lose them, but I told them in no uncertain terms – we are in a relegation battle, it’s as simple as that.
“You can’t continue to put an arm round everyone, sometimes you need the truth.
“And the truth is we’re fighting for our lives.
“If you’re down at the bottom of the table you’re in a relegation battle.
“That can change, look at Hibs last year, but right now we are in a relegation scrap.
“We have the ability to not be in that scrap, but we have to get out of it.
“I have four or five players in that dressing-room who will run through brick walls and we need more of that.”
