Dundee boss proud of players despite cup exit
Dundee boss James McPakeinsistsh is players can be proud of their performance against Hibs – despite bowing out of the Betfred Cup.
The Dark Blues crashed out of the competition after Jamie Murphy scored the only goal of a tight contest at Easter Road.
ButMcPakew as delighted with how his team applied themselves in Leith, seven days after turning out an abject display in a 2- 0 Championship defeat at Ayr United.
Midfielder Paul Mcgowan unleashed a blistering attack on the team after that game but Mcpake admitted there were no harsh words in the dressing room this time.
He said: “The boys are gutted because there was no way we deserved to lose that game.
“We were not happy with ourselves last weekend but we were miles better here. We played with the aggression and commitment I wanted to see.
“I hate saying it because it means you’ve lost, but there are ways to lose games and the players can be proud of themselves after that.
“If we keep playing like that we’ll win games in our league most weeks.
“We created chances and with a better bounce of the ball in the box would have taken the game to extra time.”
Asked to describe where his team had improved, Mc Pake , whose side lost 4- 1 to Hibs in a Betfred Cup group game 13 days earlier, added: “The last time, we were decent enough for 70 minutes but not to that level.
“And that was probably a stronger Hibs team today. Minus Paul Hanlon that was probably as strong as they could go.
“We all know Hanlon is one of Hibs’ best players and they were a better team from the last time but I thought we were better.
“Last week against Ayr we were terrible.
“There were improvements all over the pitch and there was a real desire to get after the ball, there was controlled aggression about us.
“We picked up a couple of bookings unfairly. Both teams were being very competitive. We were competitive and on the plus side of that, we weren’t at Ayr last week.
“We were soft but today we certainly weren’t soft, we fought our corner well.”
Mcpake is adamant that Murphy’ s goal should not have stood.
He added: “Their goal was offside. I’ve seen it again. But what I said afterwards to the referee will stay between me and him.
“I have seen the goal from Alex Jakubiak we had chalked off back, it was offside so I don’t have any complaints about that.”