Dundee manager James McPake has declared that a cup run is right up there on the club’s wish list.
The Dark Blues didn’t exactly get it easy when the draw for the fourth round of the William Hill Scottish Cup was made on Sunday night.
They were handed a tough tie against Premiership side Motherwell at Dens Park, to be played over the weekend of January 18-19.
It is a considerable challenge for a team that currently sits fourth in the Championship but McPake thinks it’s about time that Dundee put recent cup trauma against the likes of Elgin City, Queen of the South and Ayr United behind them and went on a run.
There have, of course, also been some decent displays, not least the Betfred game against Aberdeen back in August that the Dons won 2-1 after extra-time.
McPake said: “A cup run would be of importance to us because there haven’t been enough of them recently.
“It is another chance to test ourselves against Premiership opposition as was the case with the Aberdeen game, in which we were unfortunate.
“That match saw us put on a good performance that day, although we got beat so that made it kind of irrelevant.
“The fact is that we showed we can go and compete against that level of opposition.
“We are just happy to be at home.
“It is a while away yet and we have a lot of league games before that.”
On that note, McPake was asked if it was not tempting to downplay the cup and put nearly all the focus on trying to climb the Championship table
He replied: “I will never say that.
“I have enjoyed decent cup runs and it’s great for your club when you get them.
“More importantly, it’s great for the fans when you get to semi-finals and finals.
“That is still miles away for us but I would never write off any competition.
“We didn’t write off the Tunnock’s Cup either – we were just very, very poor on the day against Elgin.
“That was another disappointment so in recent years we haven’t had that exciting one so this is maybe a chance to go and get a bit of success in the cup.”
Meanwhile, Dundee are awaiting the results of a second scan done on Jordan Marshall’s hamstring.
It had been hoped that the left-back would be able to play in the 1-0 loss to Inverness in the Highlands on Saturday but he suffered a setback on the eve of that game.
Dundee boss McPake confirmed last night: “Marsh is getting a re-scan today.
“That is a blow for us because he has been good for us and very consistent.
“Out of all the players this season, he has probably been the one who has been, from the start, very good in most games.
“The injury recurring on Friday was a bit of a blow so we have to wait and get the results.”
There was good news on Andrew Nelson, who has had an X-ray done on his foot.
Nothing is broken and McPake said: “Andrew has a bruised foot so it’s just a case of when he can tolerate getting a boot back on and kick a ball.
“We have had it X-rayed and it came back clear.”
Jordan McGhee is “looking OK for Saturday” according to his manager despite picking up a knock.
