Dundee: boss reveals why the time was right for Meekings’ debut

Centre-half had not played for 10 months after knee injury

Dundee boss Neil McCann has explained his reasoning for handing Josh Meekings his debut for the club in the intimidating surroundings of Celtic Park on Saturday.

The 25-year-old centre-half had not played for 10 months after having an operation on a knee injury.

However, McCann showed his faith in the former Ipswich and Inverness defender, opting to play Meekings from the start while putting Kerr Waddell, who was his side’s two-goal hero against Hearts before the international break, on the bench.

Meekings played at the centre of a back three against the Hoops with Jack Hendry – who was a stand-out performer until he had to go off in the 70th minute with a cut eye – being employed on the right to combat the threat posed by Scott Sinclair.

McCann said: “Jack was exceptional against Hearts, playing as the middle man.

“Kerr played to the right and I had decisions to make about my centrebacks (for the Celtic game).

“I felt Josh could step into the middle of the park and that would allow Jack’s pace to cope with Sinclair if we were leaving ourselves a bit open.

“I felt he was fantastic but I have to say when he went off we were thinking it was a devastating blow.

“However, big Marko (Mark O’Hara) went back there and I thought he was great.

“Our bottle didn’t crash, we weren’t thinking damage limitation.

“We put on young Jess Curran, who has been exceptional for the 20s, and we continued to go for it. “I felt we went toe to toe with Celtic.” Meanwhile, Dundee have announced plans to increase their team of youth academy coaches as part of their Project Brave bid.

The Dark Blues advertised six new coaching positions that they hope will raise the club’s next generation of footballers.

The move has been prompted by the SFA’s insistence that any club hoping to gain Elite status under their Project Brave initiative – designed to drastically improve the flow of talent to first-team level and Scotland’s full international set-up – must employ at least half a dozen full-time academy staff.

Dens chiefs want to hire a new academy head coach, an U18s boss, and two other coaches to take charge of their younger age groups.

They are also looking to recruit someone to take over the identification and recruitment of young players as well as a medic to lead their new department for ‘football science and medicine’.

A club statement said: “In anticipation of the final roll-out of the Scottish FA’s ‘Project Brave’ early in 2018, the Dundee FC Academy is looking to recruit suitably qualified people to fill several roles within its enhanced set-up.

“Youth development is set to become an even more important part of Dundee FC than it already is, and these appointments will be critical to our Academy’s future and its contribution to our stars of the future.”

I felt we went toe to toe with Celtic. NEIL McCANN

Picture: SNS. Neil McCann showed his faith in Josh Meekings, giving him a debut against a Celtic side including the likes of Leigh Griffiths.