The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
McPake highlights social media perils
DUNDEE: Dee boss ‘feels for younger players’ as he laughs off bar bust-up story
Dundee boss James McPake has spoken of the good, the bad and the downright ugly pros and cons of social media.
The Dens manager was the subject of wild and unfounded rumours at the weekend regarding an alleged incident in a local pub.
McPake had gone out for a quiet beer after playing in the Sunday testimonial for Lochee United’s Greg Kirk.
However, the erroneous allegations of a bar bust-up quickly spread, so much so that the manager’s worried wife Dawn contacted him to check he was all right.
McPakewa sable to laugh off the whole incident yesterday but he admitted it highlighted the perils of social media with Celtic’s Ryan Christie the latest player to delete his Twitter account following his red card against Livingston on Sunday.
McPake, who steered his team to a vital victory over Arbroath on Saturday, said: “Social media is good for some stuff but I have also seen the other side of it.
“I deleted Twitter when I was a player at Hibs. It just wasn’t for me.
“I know the players will say they are big enough and strong enough to go out on the pitch and take stick when they haven’ t been great at times, but on social media it is not just about the players, it is about family and friends as well.
“I feel for the younger players coming through now.
“Everyone knows when you have had a bad game and the likes of Ryan Christie doesn’t need 50,000 tweeting to tell him that. It is part of everyday life now and it gives people a platform to hide behind a keyboard.
“That is the bad side although I also accept there is also a good side to it.
“There can be levelled opinions out there and the likes of Declan McDaid can take a lot out of it after his goals at the weekend.”
McPake added: “I’m not sure I really like it. The stuff this morning was ridiculous. I had a beer after a testimonial game and that was it. I had my wife texting me, saying my sister had been texting.
“My mum is not on social media but she will also end up hearing from somebody else. She’ll say people aren’t going to write it if it wasn’t true but it wasn’t.”
Meanwhile, McPake is sweating over the results of a scan on Shaun Byrne’s shoulder.
The midfielder had to be helped off during Saturday’s game following a heavy challenge in the 75th minute from the Red Lichties’ Miko Virtanen.
McPake added :“Shaun Byrne is having a precautionary scan on his shoulder on Tuesday just in case it was dislocated.
“We don’t think it was but we have two weeks so we’ll make sure it’s fine. It was the impact.
“I have watched the tackle back and it was fair enough but it did get to a point in the game on Saturday when the referee (Alan Newlands) lost a wee bit of control.
“I don’t like criticising refs but there were challenges going in at the end, both teams were at it, but it should never have been allowed to get to that point.”
Jordan Marshall did not train yesterday as a precaution after picking up a knock but Jamie Ness took part in the session.