McPake believes Dunfermline will ‘still be hurting’

James McPake says Dundee need to be wary of a Dunfermline side “hurting” from their last encounter.

The Dark Blues boss insists that tonight’s clash at East End Park will be viewed as must-win by the home side.

Five points now separate the two teams and victory for McPake’s men would all but ensure the Pars cannot overtake Dundee in the table with three games remaining.

It could all have been different had Dunfermline held on to their early twogoal lead at Dens Park just over a fortnight ago.

Had they done so, Stevie Crawford’s side would have drawn level with the Dark Blues.

And giving up that lead will still be a sore point for a Dunfermline side keen to put that right, says McPake.

“Dunfermline will still be hurting from our last meeting,” he said.

“They were 2-0 up early on and then had a real tough game against Raith after that, but they’ve picked up since. They got a couple of half-decent points against Hearts and Ayr.

“On the back of two defeats it could have been a real tough one against Hearts and they might have won that but for a great save by Craig Gordon.

“They will be up for it and I think they’ll see it as must-win.

“Dunfermline want to get back closer to us and, with Inverness not playing, they can jump back into the play-off places.

“They have incentive.”

Dundee a real themselves aren’t short of incentives either.

They can all but secure a place in the play-offs and, in the process, strengthen their challenge for second with victory.

Raith sit level with the Dark Blues and take on Queen of the South in Dumfries an hour after Dundee kick-off.

McPake is keen to see his side continue their good recent run despite the disappointment of dropping points against Morton on Saturday.

“We can take confidence from our last four games,” he added.

“If you’d have offered 10 points from those four we would have taken it.

“We have picked up a couple of good away wins recently but that was needed because our away form wasn’t great.

“We are high confidence still.

“On Saturday we weren’t as good as we have been, particularly at the top end of the pitch. Credit goes to Morton for that, they were hard to beat.

“We were disappointed but it was still 10 points out of 12. If we get 10 points from the next four then that’ll almost guarantee us second.

“It has been a half-decent run but that’s forgotten now.

“We need to go to East End Park and get a good result again.”

Jason Cummings limped off against Morton but trained yesterday.

Long-term absentees Alex Jakubiak and Jordan McGhee are nearing a return to action. on

Dundee celebrate the winner in the recent Pars clash.