Mcintyre desperate to get the monkey off his back with first Dundee victory

● Dens club still bottom but recent form gives reason for optimism against Accies

Jim Mcintyre has stressed the importance of getting his first victory as Dundee manager when his team take on Hamilton Accies at Dens Park tomorrow night.

Mcintyre took over from Neil Mccann at the Tayside club in October with the Dark Blues bottom of the Ladbrokes Premiership.

Following four straight defeats his side have shown signs of revival with draws in their last two matches against St Mirren and Hibernian.

However, they are still propping up the table, three points behind the Paisley side and eight behind Accies, who beat St Mirren 3-1 at the weekend.

Tomorrow night’s fixture therefore carries huge signifi- cance and Mcintyre is focused on getting what would be a crucial first three points.

“It is a huge match obviously and we are looking for the first win,” he said.

“It would really be important if we could do that, especially against a team that is around us in the table.

“They had a really good result at the weekend and they will be coming here to try and stretch the gap even further. So it is an opportunity for us to claw some points back.

“There is no doubt results give you confidence and the 0 Jim Mcintyre: Still searching for first win as Dundee boss.

boys can be pleased with the performance levels within those last two games.

“Again we want to take it a stage further and try to get that all-important three points which will help us in our quest to get off the bottom of the table.

“The head-to-heads are important and so if you have the opportunity when you play a team around you then you have to try to take advantage and capitalise on that.

“We know it will be a tough game, they have some good players and have the confidence from the weekend.

“They are forever being written off but they show the spirit in their camp and keep coming up with good results.” Inverness Caley Thistle are looking to bounce back from the disappointment of losing in the Championship for the first time in 26 games when they host Edinburgh City in their Scottishcupreplaytonight.

John Robertson’s side conceded a last-gasp goal to go down 3-2 to Falkirk on Saturday and will look to put that behind them and book a visit from Lowland League East Kilbride in round four of the cup.

Robertson said: “We have to lick our wounds and be ready for Edinburgh City. It is a tough shift just now as we only have a small squad, but we need to move on and be brave on the ball.”

Robertson, who is set to be without injured quartet Carl Tremarco, Angus Beith, Nathan Austin and Daniel Mackay, added: “That also happened in the first game with Edinburgh City. We had chances to kill the tie off but never took them.”

John Dunn, Josh Walker, Brad Donaldson, Kieran Stewart and Danny Handling miss out through injury for City, who sit top of League 2 and are in the Irn-bru Cup semi-finals.

Manager James Mcdonaugh said: “This game gives our players and Edinburgh City the chance to continue growing their reputations in Scottish football. You are not expected to win when you get a second shot at a bigger team, but we will give it a go.”