McPake urges Dee to carry attacking threat in Govan showdown

DUNDEE may be in their best form of the season so far but boss James McPake admits their next task is as big as it gets.

The Dark Blues face the daunting prospect of travelling to champions Rangers for a Premiership clash at Ibrox today,

The Glasgow giants haven’t lost a home league match since March 2020 when Hamilton shocked them 1-0.

But McPake expects his side to “have a go” at Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s side when the opportunity presents itself.

And their recent form sees his side heading to Ibrox today in good spirits.

“In the four fixtures of this second round, we’ve had three clean sheets, three wins and the only defeat to Celtic,” McPake said.

“You set targets and we were nowhere near that target in the first set of fixtures but we already have more points from the last four as we got in the first 11.

“That’s a positive but we know the task at Ibrox is a huge one.

“We need to be at our very best going in there to get anything.

“We have a game plan to set up defensively but we also need one to go and have a go.

“You don’t want to just sit back and let them come at you.

“We have players who can hurt teams and we need to have an attacking threat as well.”

The two sides have faced each other once already this term; a Joe Aribo goal enough to see thenmanager Steven Gerrard leave Dens Park with the points in September.

Dundee took heart from their performance that day after seeing a Jason

Cummings penalty saved in the second half.

McPake said: “I think this will be a different game. That one was at Dens and they now have a different manager.

“We know we can compete with anybody when we’re right.

“But we need to be at our levels, when we are we are a good side and have shown that.

“We’re going in with real belief in what we do and it has to be about us.

“We’re on the back of two really good performances but we need to be at consistently high levels.”

Dundee will welcome Jordan McGhee back to the match-day squad for the trip to Ibrox after knee surgery last month.

Meanwhile, a timescale for Lee Ashcroft’s hamstring injury has yet to be known after his scan was sent to a specialist to determine the extent of the problem.

He will miss out along with long-term absentees Shaun Byrne, Alex Jakubiak and Cillian Sheridan.

James McPake has much to enjoy at the moment.

Jordan McGhee returns.