McPake is still wary of threat from Tannadice

DUNDEE defender James McPake admits his team can’t afford to think of Dundee United as a weakened force if they are to pull off their first win at Tannadice since August 2004. United won four out of the five city derbies last season but have lost gifted trio Gary Mackay-Steven, Stuart Armstrong and Nadir Ciftci to Celtic. Jackie McNamara’s remodelled team had an average age of just 21 for Saturday’s 2-0 win at Motherwell but McPake warned that treating them as a lesser side than last term would be a fatal mistake. ‘You’d struggle to find another team in the league where three players could go to Celtic and start every week,’ said McPake. ‘In that respect, you could say United are weaker — but it would be foolish for us to approach the game thinking that way. ‘I also don’t think age matters in a derby. It will be 100 miles per hour and when you’re young, you play without fear.’ McPake wants Dundee to keep their heads as they bid to break their Tannadice duck, having already ended the club’s dismal 11 years without a derby win when they triumphed 3-1 at Dens Park in April. ‘It’s the biggest game of the season for both sets of fans,’ he said. ‘They want the bragging rights. For us, it’s the game you look at immediately when the fixture list comes out. ‘But we need to forget about the occasion and play like we have done for one-and-ahalf games this season — up until half-time against Hearts on Saturday. Even if we had lost our first two games, I’d still say we are a stronger squad than last season.’ Meanwhile, Dundee boss Paul Hartley welcomes back Rory Loy after the striker missed the defeat by Hearts due to injury. ‘Rory was a big miss on Saturday,’ said Hartley. ‘He wanted to play, but we didn’t want take a risk to make sure he was OK for the games coming up.’