Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
On-form Dundee to be ‘absolutely flying’ this term says coach Dave
DUNDEE first-team coach Dave Mac kay believes they will be “absolutely flying” this season if they can hit top gear.
Speaking in the absence of manager James McPake – who was attending the birth of his third daughter at the weekend – following Saturday’s 4-2 bonus point penalty shootout Betfred Cup win over Peterhead, Dave insists there is more to come from the Dark Blues.
Despite playing out another stalemate against lower league opposition, following last Wednesday’s spot-kick win at League Two Cove Rangers, the former Dee defender believes they can replicate the better results they’ve had in their early-season outings going into the new league campaign.
The Dee enjoyed a positive pre-season in Spain and downed Blackpool 1-0 at Dens Park, before seeing off Raith Rovers 3-0 at Stark’s Park in their Betfred opener.
And Dave thinks, with a few additions, they can find that kind of form again.
“We’ve had a couple of below-par performances in the last couple of games,” the former St Johnstone captain said.
“If we find the form we did against Raith Rovers, or in pre-season, or the way the boys are in training, we’ll be absolutely flying.
“It’s just trying to get that into matchday performances and I’m sure it will come.
“We’d like to get a few more bodies in to make the squad more competitive.”
However, Dave is making no excuses for Saturday’s home performance.
He added: “Obviously, we’re not pleased with the overall performance. It wasn’t good enough, following on from the other night, we looked a little bit flat and like we’d lost that creative spark.
“The players worked hard enough but really lacked in quality. The only positives were we kept a clean sheet and get a bonus point at the end of it.
“If it was over passes we would’ve battered them but football is not about that.
“We’re playing a lot of passes for the sake of it without really being creative or adventurous.
“You want to work the keeper a lot more and we didn’t work it well enough from back to front. The movement was lacking and there was just little bits we’ve been working on that never quite clicked on Saturday.”
Dundee currently sit top of Group D going into a potential decider as Inverness come calling to Dens on Sunday after they play Cove tomorrow night.
Boss James will be back in the dugout for that one and Dave is not using his absence at the weekend as an excuse for the performance as they look to progress to the knockout stages.
“It’s certainly no excuse for what happened on Saturday.
“The players know they didn’t quite perform but we’ll work hard at that to put it right for Inverness and then, obviously, the start of our league campaign next week.”