The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Scoreline harsh on Dark Blues, insists skipper O’Dea
Disappointed captain left to rue missed chances in quarter-final defeat
Captain Darren O’Dea insists the 4-0 home hammering from Celtic in the Betfred Cup was “harsh” on Dundee.
Like his manager Neil McCann, the Irishman wasn’t arguing that the Dark Blues should have won the quarter-final at a drenched Dens Park on Wednesday night.
Rather, he felt the margin of victory flattered the Hoops a little while accepting that, regardless of how many goals Dundee lost by, they still would have gone tumbling out of the tournament. “It was a sore one,” said O’Dea. “Whether it’s 1-0 or 4-0 you are out of the cup and it is what it is.
“Even if it had been one goal we still would have been out so I am bitterly disappointed with that.
“We have been beaten by a very, very good side.
“However, the scoreline probably wasn’t a fair reflection of the game.
“Considering the effort we put in, I think it was harsh on the boys but it was a cup game and we are out.
“I want to concentrate on our team because there are enough people who can tell you how good Celtic are.
“We fully believed in what we could do and it’s easy to say if we had done this or that it would have been different.
“We had chances but they got their penalty and then a goal just before halftime, which obviously gave us a massive task.”
Those Dundee chances fell to first A-Jay Leitch-Smith, when he had a clear run on goal but was caught and dispossessed by Celtic skipper Scott Brown, and Faissal El Bakhtaoui, who freshaired a shot when in a great position in front of goal.
O’Dea added: “I thought our shape in the first half was good and we created the sort of opportunities you need in those games but didn’t take them.
“You are never going to create a huge amount of opportunities (against Celtic) but we had a couple.
“We had one for Faissal and one for A-Jay, when Scott Brown did very well to get back.
“You need to take those chances. “They might not be clear-cut but you still need to take them.
“Celtic showed their quality by taking theirs but we didn’t and ended up with a result that looks very bad.”