Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Fired-up McPake backing his boys to lift Dark Blues’ gloom with fresh promotion push
UNDER-FIRE James McPake says he is “absolutely” the right man to take Dundee back to the Premiership.
The Dens Park manager admits this season has been a poor one to date, with his side sitting in fourth place in the Championship with eight matches remaining.
However, he is confident in his ability to turn the team’s fortunes around after just two wins in their last eight games.
Despite their poor recent run, the Dark Blues can go level with second place Dunfermline if they beat bottom side Alloa tonight, for one night at least.
And McPake points to the quality within his squad as the main reason he believes the dream of promotion can still be realised this season.
Asked if he was the right man to take the club up, he replied: “Absolutely. That’s not a false hope, an arrogance or a daft confidence in my own ability.
“It is what I see in the squad and the players that are here.
“So yes, I believe that we have the players and the staff that can take this club back to the Premiership.
“That’s our aim with eight games to go. We still have a chance of doing that so we are giving it our all. Hopefully come May, that’s where we’ll end up.”
McPake has been leaning on the experience of former Scotland and Celtic manager Gordon Strachan, the club’s technical director, for advice.
And he is sure he still has the backing of American owners Tim Keyes and John Nelms.
Asked if he has their full support, McPake said: “Yes.
“The aim at the start of the season was to get to the Premiership and we still have a chance to do that.
“We are under no illusions that we haven’t had a great season, far from it. The club is in fourth place so we should be much better off. We can go joint second with seven games to go but that is still not good enough for me.
“It is what it is but what I will say also is that we have a great support network here.
“Gordon is here as well and of course I am going to use him. He has been in these situations before where he has been under pressure and needing results.
“My job is to pick a team to win games of football and if the team isn’t winning, the buck stops with me. I am big enough and ugly enough to accept that.
“I will do that and continue to do that.
“But I will reiterate that my belief is in the squad of players and the work we are doing.
“We just need to find that consistency to string those wins together and cement our play-off place to give ourselves the best chance to get up.”
After picking up a good win over Arbroath at the weekend,
I will
Dundee failed to follow up with a similar performance at home to Ayr United on Tuesday night.
An early gift of a goal to Mark McKenzie from Paul McGowan undid a decent start to the game for the Dark Blues.
From that moment on, McPake’s side never looked like getting themselves back into the game.
Just three days later they take on Peter Grant’s Alloa and the Dens boss is expecting a muchimproved performance from his