'Exceptionally challenging' - Pressley opens up on tough season

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Dundee head coach Steven Pressley says he has "seen a lot of growth in myself as a human being" during an "exceptionally challenging" campaign.

They sit ninth in the table and know that a win over already-relegated Livingston at Dens Park on Saturday will secure their Premiership status.

After six years away from management, Pressley's arrival at Dundee last summer raised a few eyebrows.

As he nears the end of his first season back in the dugout, he was asked how he has found it and whether it has been different to what he expected after so long away from the front line.

He said: "I think that a job like ours, where you are fighting constantly for survival - and when you look at the history of our club, it would suggest that we are a club that spends most of our time fighting for survival or in the division below trying to get promotion.

"It means it is a really challenging job and can be a difficult job and a lonely job at times. It has been exceptionally challenging on many fronts and you learn a lot about yourself during these dark periods, but that is football management and we have to accept that.

"I have been in the game long enough to know that it is part of the journey, part of the job. The one thing that I will say about it is it probably challenges you more than most other jobs and, as a result of that, on a personal level I have seen a lot of growth in myself as a human being – and that is important to me."

There were many doubters among the Dundee support following his appointment. But with his team on the brink of Premiership survival and largely praised for their style of play, does Pressley believe he has won those doubters over?

He said: "I don't know, because football changes so quickly and people change, normally based around the results.

"So I get it, I get the environment, I understand the environment, but I am very process-driven so I try to stay very balanced about things and not get too high with the result or too low.

"I am very much looking at the performance. I never really look too much at myself. I am a bit of a servant - I support the staff, I support the players, that is my job.

"The thing with football management is that it is such a rollercoaster and although you have said that maybe I have proved some doubters wrong, that could change within no time and I am well aware of that.