McCann relishes cup test as United focus switches

Dark Blues await holders as McKinnon looks forward to return to Tannadice

DERBY VICTORY: Continued from page 56

“I’m delighted for Faissal because, having brought him to Dunfermline, I’ve seen him grow in terms of his football knowledge and he’s still learning,” added the Dundee boss.

“I wanted to fire him up and not have him worrying about coming to feet. He’s got such a feathery touch when he gets in good positions.

“He’s so fleet-footed he can stretch defences.

“He’s got thunder in his boot. He played Futsal with a denser ball and has no backlift.

“He scored one like that against Buckie and I want to keep encouraging him.

“It was an unbelievable finish and Gowser’s was a fantastic move.

“I wished there was a camera on me, I had a feeling and I was away. If it hadn’t gone in I’d have had egg on my face.”

McCann added: “The draw is great financially and we might get TV back here. It’s probably the draw everyone usually wants to avoid.

“They’re the best team in the country and have deserved that but having it at Dens has given us a better chance.

“We’ve got them at home. Honestly if you want to win the cup you probably have to face them at some point.

“We’ve earned the right to look forward to a draw like that with tonight.

“It’s so far in the future we need to gear up our league campaign.

“I want the boys to believe they can go and challenge and be really competitive and have good cup runs.

“We’ll have to come up with a gameplan to give to the players for Celtic but I want them to grasp things – that you don’t want a mediocre season.

“We want to challenge, if you don’t have those aspirations you’ll come up short.

“Enjoy tonight and look forward to Celtic but we’ve got big business at Hamilton (in the Premiership on Saturday).”

Meanwhile, a naturally disappointed United boss Ray McKinnon insisted the focus now shifts to the league and the weekend game at Tannadice against Queen of the South. He said: “Saturday will now be the focus. Of course we want to win that.

“I think they’ll be fine. We are at home after being away for three back-to-back games. “It’ll be good to play at Tannadice. “Dundee are a good team with some very good players.

“There has to be a winner and loser but sometimes you just have to accept it.

“I know why we lost and we have to address it but that’s part of life.

“I’m disappointed obviously. We don’t want to go out the cup.

“You just have to accept these things. We shot ourselves in the foot with the second goal.

“We’ll get stronger so there’s lots of positives to take out of it.

“Three tough away games is a tough start to the season but their attitude and effort was excellent.

“We just need to make sure we cut out the mistakes. Every minute we need to concentrate but we didn’t do it.”

Ray McKinnon: felt his side paid for a lack of concentration.