Manager Neil McCann spoke after watching his side put in another good pre-season display against English Championship side Bolton at Dens on Friday night, he told us, “I’m a wee bit disappointed we didn’t get another win because that’s what we trying to achieve, to win all our games. Overall, I thought the performance at times tonight was brilliant.”
“It was exactly the test we were looking for going into the season for real now with the cup on Tuesday night. I’m disappointed because the two goals we have lost are typical English Championship football where they bang it forward and work off the physicality. We had a word with Jack Hendry and Kerr Waddell at half time about being aggressive, just as aggressive in winning their headers and trusting in their ability in the air. I thought they were outstanding but overall some of the football tonight going forward was very good.”
Captain Darren O’Dea sat out the match and Neil explained it was a case of not risking him ahead of the competitive action starting next week, “He’s got a wee knock and there was no point in taking any risks tonight. We’ll give him a couple of days where he can just recover back from it and I’m pretty confident he’ll should be ok for Tuesday.”
On Friday afternoon, Neil added another striker to the squad with the signing of Tunisian born Sofien Moussa, “Sofien has joined the club, and he is exactly what we have been looking for. We have looked around for a long time now for someone that can compliment what we have. He is very aggressive in the air, he’s 6 foot 3, he’s mobile and he gives us that physicality up front which I feel we needed to add. I’m delighted with the signing.”
“He’s going to take a week to ten days, he is a couple of weeks behind us in terms of his fitness. He is a fit boy but he needs to get game ready so we’ll just be careful and not rush him. He won’t take long to get up to speed but we’ll just feed him in as the boys train at such a high intensity and he’s got to meet that.”
Asked if he is close to knowing his starting eleven for the Betfred Cup opener against Raith Rovers on Tuesday, the manager said, “Yes, but what I asked for is boys to step up and put themselves forward and I have to say the boys that came onto the pitch tonight made a real impact and that is what you are looking for. When you make substitutions you want guys to come on and turn your head, what it showed me is that we have a squad that is very strong and all vying for positions so it’s a nice problem to have.”
Subscribers can watch video interviews with Neil and Glen Kamara as well as the goals and a full match replay on www.dundeefc.co.uk/deetv
