Hartley has faith in under-fire strikers

THERE’S concern on the terraces with the lack of goals coming from the Dark Blues but boss Paul Hartley has belief in the strikers at the club.

Hartley’s Dundee side held their own defensively in the weekend’s 1-0 defeat at home to champions Celtic.

But, at the other end of the park, they struggled to threaten the Glasgow giants, managing only one shot on target and one off in the 90 minutes.

But the Dark Blues gaffer stuck up for the frontmen he has at his disposal.

Hartley said: “We have to stick with the forwards we have and I have great faith in them.

“We don’t have a magic wand and there are no free agents available.

“It’s up to the strikers here to step up and take responsibilty.

“We will go with what we have and hope that it is enough till the transfer window opens in January.”

Saturday also saw the manager revert to a back three, something he hadn’t done since the early-season League Cup matches.

“I changed the shape of the team to three at the back and I think we looked comfortable,” Hartley added.

“We don’t want to bamboozle the players, so we are going to stick with the system and see where it takes us.”

Celtic enjoyed the majority of the possession but the performance from his own players was pleasing for the Dundee boss.

Hartley said: “I thought the whole team were excellent.

“We were organised and our discipline when defending was good.

“The one thing missing was that cutting edge when we got forward.”

Celtic skipper Scott Brown scored the only goal of the game, starting a move in the 47th minute before following up and firing in from eight yards out.

Brown said: “Dundee gave us a good game. It’s always hard. They fought and created a couple of chances but yet again we created a couple more and I was lucky enough to get on the scoresheet.

“It was my first of the season in the league so, hopefully, there are a couple more this season.

“But at the end of the day it doesn’t really matter to me who scores the goals, as long as we get three points on the board and get the performance.”

DUNDEE’S development squad take on Dunfermline Athletic at East End Park tonight at 6pm.

With the international break next weekend, James Vincent and Julian Etxabeguren are expected to get playing time.

Dundee’s Dutch frontman Yordi Teijsse heads over the bar from Faissal El Bakhtaoui’s cross in one of few chances for the Dark Blues against Celtic.