Dundee manager James McPake hailed the efforts of his injury-hit squad in defeat to Hearts as he addressed Jason Cummings’ future at Dens Park.
The Dark Blues were beaten 1-0 by a late Jamie Walker strike to make it four Premiership losses in a row.
Thanks to a host of injuries as well as a suspension to Ryan Sweeney and Cummings’ exclusion from the squad for breaching club discipline, McPake was only able to name five players on the bench.
That included youth-team players Callum Lamb and Craig Donald with only Alex Jakubiak seeing action.
‘Do I regret my decision?’
Despite being so low on numbers, Dens boss McPake stands by his decision to keep Cummings away.
“He was unfit to train on Friday so do I regret my decision? No,” McPake said after the loss to Hearts.
“He never asked me to go to the event and would I have allowed him to go? I didn’t get the chance to answer that.
“I probably wouldn’t have because of where we are, but I didn’t get the courtesy of that – so there’s the first breach.
“Then he wasn’t anywhere near enough fit to train on Friday morning.
“We are fighting and people like Alex Jakubiak are telling me they’re not ready but he’s willing to play.
“We had 11 players and they all gave everything.
“I get asked why Jason Cummings isn’t in my team, well, that’s one of the answers.”
Asked whether Cummings would feature again for the Dark Blues, McPake replied: “I had one sub today, as things stand I just hope I have a team for Boxing Day.”
‘Typical’ goal to lose
Saturday’s contest at Dens Park was a tight one with little separating the sides before Walker’s 75th-minute strike.
“It was a sore one,” the Dens boss said.
“The players gave everything, bodies on the line at times but I think we had good bits of play and it was the final ball at times.
“It’s a typical type of goal we are losing at the minute – it deflects again, Liam Fontaine doing the right thing, it hits the post and rolls across the goal-line for Jamie Walker.”
The defeat leaves the Dark Blues two points off the bottom going into next Sunday’s trip to Aberdeen.
