Manager Jim McIntyre looked ahead to Sunday’s meeting with Celtic at the Kilmac Stadium at Dens Park this afternoon. Dundee come into the match on the back of a tough run of fixtures, he said of the match against the Glasgow side, “We knew we were coming into a tough period of games and it’s not went our way in the last three. We’re at home, we know it is going to be a difficult match as it always is against the Champions and we’ve got to make sure we are really organised, structured, and that’s the way you have to approach the game. We know it’s going to be difficult but everybody has been involved in upsets before and that’s what we will try and cause.”
“We will go with a game plan that we are hard to break down but also we offer a threat going the other way.”
Asked if he need to lift his squad ahead of the match he said, “I don’t think you ever need to lift yourself going into face Celtic. It’s a game everyone wants to play in and apart from the Rangers result there has been a lot of positives in the performances from the players. They are in a good place in terms of their levels, in terms of confidence and feeling good about themselves.”
“Equally they know they need to be better when they get into key areas and that is what has let us down especially against Hibs and Hearts.”
A result on Sunday could act as a catalyst for the upcoming matches ahead of the split, Jim said, “When you are at the bottom spots of the table, getting a big result gives everyone a big lift and that is exactly what we will be trying to do. We know how difficult it is going to be. Nothing has changed in the last 20/30 years, anytime you play against the Old Firm you know you have to be right at it and it’s up to us.”
Andrew Nelson will miss out again through injury while Andrew Davies has now returned to training but Sunday will come too early for the central defender to make his debut, The manager confirmed, “Nelson won’t make it, he’s still not on the training ground yet. He’s a lot better but it’s quite a slow laborious injury which is taking a wee bit longer than we first thought, so that’s a disappointment.”
“Andrew Davies is back in training but I think Sunday will come too soon for him as well. We have Jack Hamilton and Josh Meekings the longer term injuries and other than that we are fully fit.”
Subscribers can watch the full press conference with the manager and Darren O’Dea on deetv.dundeefc.co.uk.
