Kirkcaldy star Davidson hopes to catch new-look Dundee on the hop

Dundee will have the element of surprise on their side in tomorrow night’s Betfred Cup clash with Raith Rovers.

But former Dark Blues player Iain Davidson is hoping the Kirkcaldy men can catch Neil McCann’s new-look team cold at Stark’s Park.

It will be Dundee’s season opener but Raith have a decent weekend performance at Tannadice under their belt, though the points stayed with the Championship club.

“I follow Dundee on social media and read what the fans are saying,” said Davidson. “A lot of them are surprised by the names they’ve signed.

“They’ll have to wait and see. It could go one way or the other. A lot of them are unknown – they’re certainly unknown to us.

“Hopefully we can take advantage of that and get the win to keep us alive in the group. We’re up to speed. There’s a difference between friendlies and competitive games and hopefully that will help us.”

Davidson added: “I haven’t played them since I left. It would have been nice if the game had been at Dens, because I haven’t been there since I left. The fans were great to me and I’ve got happy memories.

“I’d have loved to have stayed a bit longer but Paul (Hartley) was bringing his own players in and on Tuesday night I’ll be looking to get one over on them.”

Raith enjoyed a good pre-season and they were a match for Dundee United until the first goal was conceded.

“If we’d taken our chances it could have been a different story,” said Davidson.

“Paul McMullan has scored a good goal and after that we were chasing the game, which suited them.

“We were very comfortable, especially in the first half. They were struggling to break us down. You wouldn’t have thought there was much difference between the two teams You’ve got to look at the positives and we’ll try and bounce back against Dundee.”

Davidson believes the rediscovered harmony in the squad will be a big factor for them in their bid to bounce straight back to the Championship.

“The changing room was angry and disappointed to lose that game,” he said. “Which shows how far we’ve come in a short space of time.

“Last year was a disaster, especially the last few months under Yogi. There was no togetherness and it was sad that it came to that.

“But it’s in the past now and the one thing we’ve got now is that togetherness, which is what you need. It will stand us in good stead.

“We’ll be looking for a positive reaction on Tuesday against another good side who are in the Premiership.”

Manager Barry Smith said: “We’re all disappointed with the result but there were certainly a lot of positives to take. As much as United had good possession they didn’t really break us down that often.

“This is a tough game. United are a good team, expected to win the Championship. We created opportunities against them and there’s a lot for us to work with.”

Iain Davidson is relishing playing his former side at Stark’s Park.