Dundee 1, Kilmarnock 1

KILMARNOCK'S Charlee Adams wasn't joking about attempting to soldier on, but his defiance was met only with laughter given the serious nature of his injury.

The on-loan Birmingham City midfielder hadn't even the slightest inkling regarding the depth of his suffering brought on by Kevin Gomis, the Dundee defender, which led to him being stretchered off in the final 10 minutes of Saturday's draw at Dens Park.

Adams, 21, was the victim of Gomis' crude challenge as the Frenchman was rightly shown a straight red-card for going in high on the Killie substitute who had only entered proceedings a mere seven minutes earlier in the hope of helping his side achieve a more favourable outcome.

The London-born midfielder, who joined Lee Clark's Ayrshire outfit last month until January, was simply unaware of any gaping wound until he eventually glanced downwards to see the state of his smashed shin while lying flat out on the turf.

Despite his bravery to see out the remainder of the game, Adams told how the Kilmarnock medical team couldn't help but chuckle when they heard of his intention to return to action.

Adams said: “The physio, Alex, laughed at me when I said I was alright to play on because he could see my bone.

“My shin bone was hanging out.

“I thought I could play on until I looked down.

“I was in pain but I didn't even know that he (Gomis) got sent-off.

“I was on the floor at the time.

“I think I actually won the ball.

“In that situation, I've got to go in for it because it was a 50-50.

“But obviously I've come off worse.

“I've had it stitched up so hopefully it's not too bad and we'll just see how it is on Monday morning.

“The pain was numbed by needles afterwards so it was throbbing to say the least.”

Killie left Tayside with a valuable point thanks to African attacker Souleymane Coulibaly's spectacular 31st overhead kick which cancelled out Faissal EL Bakhtaoui's early opener for the Dark Blues who're still without a Premiership win at home this season.

The Rugby Park side felt they should have kicked on from Coulibaly's equaliser and returned to Ayrshire nursing a collective sense of frustration at not finishing the job off.

Adams said: “We've got high standards.

“We're disappointed to come here and drop two points.

“Personally, I'm really enjoying it here though.

“I came up a few weeks ago on loan from Birmingham.

“I've worked with the gaffer before and this will be a good experience for me up until January.”

Dundee need no reminding that these are precisely the kind of fixtures they should be taking maximum points from if they're to seriously challenge for a top-six place this season.

Midfielder Mark O'Hara, for one, admitted it wasn't good enough and knows fine well they must raise their game in the coming weeks.

Dundee's forthcoming games see them welcome Aberdeen to Tayside, before travelling to Inverness and then hosting relentless Celtic in what is sure to prove a testing next few weeks.

It was little wonder their frustrated supporters jeered them off at the end of Saturday's stalemate and O'Hara insists there can be no excuses offered up.

O'Hara said: “It is really frustrating and we need to do better, especially at home and start winning games.

“If you want to push on to top-six these are the games you have to win.

“Hopefully, once we win one at Dens it will turn and kick us on.

“There are big games coming up and there is a lot to play for.

“These are the matches you want to play in and there’s no reason why we can’t win them.

“Aberdeen are obviously a good side but it would be great to win and hopefully it will give a lot of confidence to the team."