The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Dundee will be on front foot against Celtic, says wide man Roarie Deacon –
Neil McCann’s men plan to be on front foot in clash with champions
Dundee wide man Roarie Deacon claims they will be on the front foot when they go toe to toe with Celtic.
Deacon, who set up Sofien Moussa to earn a point for the Dark Blues in their 1-1 draw with Hearts on Sunday, insists the Dark Blues won’t just sit back against the champions-elect tomorrow night.
Instead, it will be a confident team that takes on the Hoops at Celtic Park after putting on an encouraging display against the Jam Tarts, albeit not getting the win they wanted to ease their relegation fears.
Deacon said: “We will take confidence from the Hearts game and go into the Celtic match believing in ourselves.
“If we play our own game and impose ourselves on them then we will give ourselves a chance.
“It will just be a case of going there focused on ourselves then see what happens. I think a lot of teams go Celtic Park, sit back and wait to get beaten.
“But the gaffer here doesn’t accept that. He wants us on the front foot attacking teams in every match we play.
“Is that the approach we will take on Wednesday? Most likely, because that’s what we did at their place earlier in the season.
“We attacked Celtic that day, created a few chances to win the game and were unlucky to lose 1-0.
“If we can go there and play like that again then we will have a chance to pick up something.”
Deacon, who was voted man-of-thematch on Sunday, admitted it felt like two points dropped rather than one gained against Hearts.
The hosts were the better side against a Tynecastle team that seemed happy to settle for a share of the spoils.
“It was frustrating to only get a point on Sunday because we played well and were on top for most of the game,” said Deacon.
“I definitely think we deserved to win the game but it could turn out to be a good point for us come the end of the season. We looked back to being ourselves again. During the international break we worked hard on things and how we are going to improve.
“We did a lot of work on our shape and you could see that out there because we defended well as a team and attacked well too.
“We have an abundance of talent in our team so it’s a shame we are not doing better than we are. If you look around our changing room man-to-man then we have a lot of very good individuals.
“It has just been that we have not come together as a team consistently enough. If we had more of a cutting edge then we could achieve more, but every team will say they need a 25-goal-aseason striker.”