Hartley to stick with back four

HE has to find a replacement for long-term absentee Julen Etxabeguren tomorrow but Dundee boss Paul Hartley will not tamper with his formation when he takes his team to face St Johnstone.

Either Kosta Gadzhalov or Kevin Gomis will come in for the injured Etxabeguren and their availability also gives the gaffer the option of switch to a back three.

Paul, though, admits he will stick to a four-man defence.

“We could go with a three and that’s something we might look at but right now I’m happy with a back four,” he said.

“We’ve been going quite well, so I don’t want to change it.”

As expected, yesterday saw Etxabeguren go under the knife to have his ruptured Achilles tendon repaired. And it’s been confirmed he can expect to be out for six months.

“It’s a shame because he was playing well but it had to be done.”

There was better news of reserve keeper David Mitchell.

A cracked eye socket picked up i n a training accident will rule him out of the Perth trip tomorrow but he will return to action soon.

“He’s back training. He won’t be back in the squad for this one but he’s been doing some light handling and he’ll be OK again soon,” explained Paul.

“It was an awkward one in training and he caught someone’s knee.

“He’s been out f or a couple of weeks but it won’t be much longer.”

Kevin Gomis could return to Dundee’s defence tomorrow.