Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Strong Dee head for Station Park
DUNDEE will take a strong squad to Forfar for Martyn Fotheringham’s testimonial tonight with manager Paul Hartley set to give players he feels need game time a run.
That’s likely to include weekend goal hero against Celtic, Faissal El Bakhtaoui.
“We’re treating it as a first-team game and all the ones who were not involved from the start against Celtic will play,” said Paul.
“We’re delight to be providing the opposition for Martyn’s game and with no match ourselves this weekend it’s a chance to keep the boys ticking over.”
And after his weekend performance as a supersub, Paul believes El Bakhtaoui is now showing why Dundee moved to fix up the former Dunfermline man early in the season.
Back then he described the French-Moroccan as a “project” and it remains one he believes will bear fruit for the Dark Blues.
“Sunday showed what Faissal can do — now he needs to do it more often because this season he’s been inconsistent.
“But we knew it would be a step up for him coming to the Premiership because he’s jumped two leagues. We had to stay patient.
“He scored 30 times for Dunfermline and that was never going to happen here, but we know the ability and quality he has.”
With Marcus Haber away on international duty with Canada and expected to be in their line up against Scotland at Easter Road tomorrow night, Dundee may go with a front two of El Bakhtaoui and Craig Wighton at Station Park.
Wighton, though, may be held back because of his involvement for the Scotland U/21s next week.
Also missing from the squad for tonight will be attacker Henrik Ojamaa.
He’s joined up with Estonia for Saturday’s World Cup qualifier in Cyprus.
He’ll then be heading home to the Baltic Sea for a friendly against Croatia early next week.
The 25-year-old will not return to Dens until Wednesday week, just 48 hours before Premiership hostilities resume with the visit of Aberdeen.
The Forfar team will be along usual lines, plus several guest appearances by team-mates from the past 10 years.
Tonight’s action kicks off at 7.45pm and gate prices are £10 for adults and £5 for concessions.