Paul Hartley spoke to the press after his side’s 2-0 defeat of visitors Manchester City and was happy with how his lads showed up in their first pre-season match. “I was pleased. It was a good workout for our first game and I thought we played well. We had a good shape about our play, I was pleased about how the players performed and I thought their fitness and energy levels were good playing against a top team with top players. Overall I thought it was a really good workout for our first pre-season game and it couldn’t have come much tougher than this.”
The manager was happy with the efforts of the match trialists and praised them for their efforts. “I thought they done really well. I thought that Luka was excellent up front. It’s difficult to play as a lone striker. I thought he was excellent and held it in well and Thomas at centre back was really strong and commanding and worked well with Jazza. Young Kieron done well on the right hand side. The two German lads have been used for the last week or so and I was really pleased with the way they played today.”
Asked his thoughts on signing those who impressed him Paul told us that that was still to be decided. “We’ve looked at them the last week an we just wanted to see them again and I don’t think there’s a tougher test for them and we will be speaking to them before they go back. I was pleased with the way that things went for them. I think they’ve got a couple of options but they joined with the squad last week and they were terrific and settled in well with the players. They’re young, they look hungry, they want to do well and we’ll see where we can take it.”
Talking about a team with the calibre of Man City coming to the city and to Dens Park Paul spoke about how positive an experience this was for the team. “You play against the Premiership Champions, the top team. It’s good for our players. It’s not every day they play against touch opponents and top players. They had to work really hard today but I thought we played some good football at times. I thought we played well in spells of the game and it’s great for the guys the condition that they are in just now.”
“I don’t think I’m always happy with the where I’m at” he said when asked if the team are at the stage he would want them at. “I think we’ve got another four games to go. We’re missing a couple also with Ferry and McGowan out and the two keepers and young Grant came in and did really well. I’m never happy and I think we’re always looking for room for improvement and we’ve just got to keep progressing over the next couple of weeks. We’ve got another game Wednesday and then we’re away to Morecambe next weekend so we’ll have a look at different systems, different players and personnel.”
Asked about fitness of missing players Paul told us, “He’s back” (Bain) and hopefully it will be a quick recovery. It was keyhole so we’re talking two or three weeks which is important”. Talking about Ferry and McGowan he said, “Hopefully they’ll train Tuesday so they’ll be available for selection for Wednesday. Kyle’s fine, I just didn’t want to risk him. I don’t want to risk anybody just now.”
