Gary Irvine was delighted with the welcome he received on his return to Dens Park on Saturday but even more so with a shock cup victory that St Mirren's captain believes could kick start their season.

The 31-year-old full-back, who gave long service to Dundee, had looked forward to visiting them in the William Hill Scottish Cup and returned with more than he could have hoped for after the 2-0 victory.

“I got a good reception. Everybody has been good to me,” he said.

“One Dundee supporters club even gave me a presentation after the game. It's always nice coming back to Dens.

“I think I experienced every emotion here in football during my time at the club.

“I had the lot, promotion, relegation and administration.

“To be fair, the fans have always been brilliant with me.

“As much as we've come away with a victory and are feeling good about ourselves, it was just nice to see all the friends I made over the year and the fans who gave me their total support.”

Even nicer, though, to find the home team in generous mood, Dundee contributing significantly to their own demise with defensive errors that let the Buddies in for their goals.

With St Mirren seven points adrift at the foot of the Championship and their Premiership opponents unbeaten at home since October, it was obviously the surprise of the round.

However, Irvine said he and his colleagues knew they had a chance as they headed east.

“That's cup football for you, being able to beat a team who turned over St Johnstone in their last Premiership league game and us being where we are in the Championship right now,” he said.

“Our season has been a tough one in the league. But we've actually done alright in the cup competitions.

“We've been enjoying ourselves in the cup and you can't put your finger on why that's been the case.

“In cup games anything can happen and today we took our chances."

John Sutton, another ex-Dundee man, struck first when the ball ricocheted into his path on the edge of the bos midway through the first half.

And when Craig Wighton slipped to gift possession to man of the match Stevie Mallan, he teed up Jack Baird for an emphatic finish that sealed the outcome early in the second half.

Irvine echoed his manager Jack Ross’s view that the team has not been getting the results their play has deserved.

But with new goalkeeper Billy O’Brien pulling off a string of key saves and the Premiership side failing to take their chances as what has been a rare clean sheet was achieved, the skipper reckoned this could be the result that turns their season around.

“It's always good getting a win in the cup and progressing,” he said.

“It's a good confidence booster that we needed. We enjoyed it.

“Obviously with the way things have been going, we're looking for that wee bit of confidence to take into the rest of the season.

“The experienced players like myself can hopefully use our experience to feed off these wins and bring the young ones.

“So we would look to this result to do that and take the positives into the next league game.

“Prior to this game, we've actually been playing good stuff but it's maybe just been individual errors and losing silly goals which has cost us.

“We have gone through a spell when we weren't scoring as well and it's not a good combination.”

“Hopefully we can take confidence from a good win, coming to a hard place and we’ll take that into the rest of the season.”