Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Caulker a class act — McCann
DUNDEE boss Neil McCann says Steven Caulker has already shown himself to be “a class act” in his short time at the club.
Former Tottenham and Liverpool defender Caulker, who won an England cap in 2012 and scored against Sweden, has only featured twice for the Dark Blues since signing a fortnight ago.
In just those two games against Kilmarnock and Partick Thistle, though, he has already shown it was never ability that negatively affected his career i n England, more off-the-field issues, and he has already made himself a fixture in the Dundee backline.
And his new gaffer i s backing him to cause more problems in their opponents’ penalty areas after grabbing his first goal on his debut against Killie and almost notching again at Firhill.
Neil said: “It was another towering performance.
“He is a class act, isn’t he?
“With him and Josh Meekings on Saturday, they had to defend well because big Sammon is a handful and the striker’s got a lot of confidence by hitting the back of the net recently.You can see he’s believing in himself.
“Big Steven is not only a good defender and a leader, he’s a menace in the opposition box.
“H e ’s u p m a k i n g a nuisance of himself in the box and it broke so, all round, I was a happy man on Saturday.”
The 2-1 success over Thistle saw Dundee move four points clear of their beaten opponents and seven points ahead of bottom team Ross County.
Neil, though, isn’t looking over his shoulder.
He added: “There is a bit of breathing space but I would tend to look at it as we’ve clawed in a couple of teams above us.”