Jordan McGhee reckons the current Dundee crop of players have the “attitude” to get over the club’s recent cup woes.
The Dark Blues face Motherwell today in the Premier Sports Cup with a place in the quarter-final at stake.
The club have only managed one appearance in the last eight of the competition in the past decade and just a single semi-final showing this century.
McGhee himself has been part of a Hearts squad that reached the semi-finals back in 2014 and would dearly love a cup run at Dens Park.
“I got to the semis with Hearts,” he recalled of his own history in the competition.
“We also got to the final when I was there but I was just a young boy at the time. We lost to St Mirren with Paul McGowan playing for them.
“Myself, I’m determined to get a cup run here. We saw St Johnstone do it last year so why not Dundee?
“We spoke at the start of the season we wanted a cup run.
“Hopefully starting today we can start to make our mark on the cups.
“We’ve definitely got the attitude to win these games and we have the experience behind us to do that, too.
“In one-off games you just need to be at it and it’s about mentality when you’re back is against the wall.
“We have the boys in the team to do that and we have goals all over the team as well.”
Use setback as fuel for season
Last week’s 6-0 defeat to Celtic still hurts says the versatile McGhee.
But he insists Dundee will be using that pain as motivation for the season ahead.
The 24-year-old points to the reaction from the team last season following the 6-2 loss to Hearts as evidence they can do just that.
“Last season we had a lot of setbacks. The Hearts one in particular,” McGhee added.
“We used that as fuel.
“When you’re down and you need a goal, you remember the time you were in the dressing-room and your head was all over the place.
“I think we did that last season and we’ll have to do it again.
“Today is a massive game, the fans coming back in in numbers, I can’t wait to see the stands full again.
“It will be a big test for us, Motherwell are a good side and have started well.
“It is a perfect game to put last week right. The pitch is perfect, fans will be back and it’ll be a good game.”