O’dea sidelined ahead of crunch clash

Skipper to sit out Accies visit as Mccann targets blistering start at Dens

Dundee have suffered a big blow ahead of today’s crunch clash with Hamilton at Dens with the news that skipper Darren O’dea has been ruled out through injury.

The big Irishman had to leave the field after just half an hour of Wednesday night’s home defeat to Motherwell with a head knock and had to be replaced by Kerr Waddell.

O’dea is now set to sit out the Accies match but Dark Blues boss Neil Mccann has revealed that two surprise omissions from the squad chosen to face the Steelmen will return this afternoon.

Mccann said: “Darren will miss out. I’m not sure if his nose is definitely broken but it certainly isn’t looking great.

“He is probably a bit concussed as well so we won’t consider him for Hamilton on medical grounds.

“Thankfully we have a few options in Darren’s position.

“Cammy Kerr and Faissal El Bakhtaoui missed out on Wednesday but I go with a starting line-up then I have to balance my bench and look at my options. So there was nothing in that and both of them will be back in the squad tomorrow.”

The Dundee fans going to the Hamilton game had better be in their seats early as Mccann is looking for his side to make a blistering start – in contrast to the Motherwell match, with the Dark Blues conceding what proved to be the only goal of the game after just five minutes.

When asked if it was important after what happened on Wednesday that his side flew out of the traps, Mccann admitted: “I agree 100%. We cannot afford to start matches slowly.

“Our game is built on tempo, passing, moving and trying to get forward quickly into good areas of the pitch.

“We didn’t get our game going against Motherwell so that has been addressed verbally and in training and hopefully we will start off right against Hamilton.”

Dundee had what seemed to be a perfectly good goal by Sofien Moussa chalked off against Motherwell.

It was a decision that enraged Mccann at the time and even now that the dust has settled, he is adamant it should have stood.

However, he is insistent that his side cannot afford to look back on what might have been and instead have to focus on what is ahead of them.

He said: “I have watched it many, many times and my opinion hasn’t changed one bit. It is so disappointing and it angers you but it is done now and you can’t get it back.

“We will look to finish on a high after this batch of games we’ve had but it’s clearly the start of the next block of fixtures against Hamilton.

“We are obviously looking to win the game but the picture could have been so different.

“Some decisions have gone against us but we have probably been wasteful.

“We would have liked to get more points from the games recently but we cannot dwell on that too much. It is in the past now.”

Hamilton had lost six straight games before they managed to stop the rot on Tuesday night when they drew at home with Partick Thistle.

Mccann was at that match with his assistant Graham Gartland and the manager added: “We know what we need to do to win the game.

“I expect Hamilton to be organised, spirited and they carry threats within their side.

“They stopped a poor run of defeats against Partick Thistle the other evening there. I don’t think Hamilton are all that far removed from the side we faced recently. They are an effective team at what they do.”

Accies will hope to repeat their last two performances against Mccann’s team.

They stuck four goals past the Dark Blues at the end of last season and another three in their first clash of this campaign.

But defender Alex Gogic warned it might be a different story at Dens.

“We have good memories against Dundee and we can fall back on them,” he said. “That’s something we can be confident about. Hopefully we can do the same on Saturday.

“However, every game is a new game so we need to be focused and try to cut out the mistakes.”

Accies boss Martin Canning is hopeful Xavier Tomas will be fit.

The defender limped off with hamstring trouble towards the end of the draw with Partick Thistle, but Canning says the problem should have cleared up for today’s game.

Danny Redmond (ankle), Georgios Sarris, Grant Gillespie and Ali Crawford (all knee) are all nearing comebacks, while skipper Michael Devlin (knee) is looking at a January return following his long-term lay-off.