Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

What can Dundee expect from TNS at fortress Park Hall tonight?

The New Saints have been involved in European qualifiers for the last 23 seasons.
The New Saints have been involved in European qualifiers for the last 23 seasons.

On Friday night, Dundee will be facing a side full of confidence, scoring goals and with European experience under their belts this season.

The New Saints have been Welsh champions in 13 of the last 18 seasons and won the league and cup double last term.

They may be largely unknown to fans of the Dark Blues and supporters across Scotland.

However, Craig Harrison’s side are bang in form and will fancy upsetting their Scottish Championship visitors.

Used to winning

Ryan Brobbel scores the winner in a Champions League qualifier against Linfield.

TNS have earned a habit of winning, not just in recent years, but stretching through much of this century.

Only twice have they finished outside the top two in the Welsh top flight, now the Cymru Premier, since 2000.

Last season they won the title by 21 points, winning 25 of their 32 league games.

And this campaign they have continued in that vein.

After drawing their opening fixture, TNS have won five matches on the bounce with only one goal conceded.

Their last outing saw them thrash Cardiff Metropolitan University 7-0 away from home putting them four points clear.

The only defeats for TNS this season have come away in European football.

Home form

Their 2,000 capacity Park Hall has not seen an away win yet this season either.

That includes a Champions League qualifier against Linfield where the Welsh outfit won 1-0 and their Europa Conference League tie against Vikingur that finished 0-0.

Both two-legged ties ended in defeat but last season they won all three of their home European legs.

TNS defeated Glentoran 2-0, Kauno Zalgiris 5-1 and Viktoria Plzen 4-2 in the Conference League.

Plzen would defeat them on penalties in the second leg after drawing 5-5 on aggregate.

The Czech side have this season qualified for the Champions League group stage where they have been drawn against Barcelona, Inter Milan and Bayern Munich.

TNS lost only one home match in the entirety of last season.

Squad

TNS’s top scorer this season is well known to fans of the Scottish lower leagues and to Dundee fans.

Declan McManus made the switch from Dunfermline last summer for £60,000.

He has five goals to his name this term, including a brace at the weekend.

Also among the goals are Ryan Brobbel (4) and Adrian Cieslewicz (3).

Declan McManus in action for The New Saints.

Twenty-nine-year-old Brobbel is a former Northern Ireland U/21 international while Cieslewicz started his career with Manchester City.

The Pole has since played for Wrexham, Kidderminster and B36 Torshavn in the Faroe Islands.

Midfielder Jon Routledge has had four separate spells with Hamilton Accies in the Scottish Premiership and spent the 2015/16 season in the Championship with Dumbarton before joining TNS.

Daniel Redmond, too, spent four years at New Douglas Park in the top flight.

Record against Scottish sides

This is not TNS’s first entry into the Scottish Challenge Cup.

In their four seasons in the competition, they have registered wins over Livingston, Elgin City and Forfar Athletic.

The New Saints were beaten by St Mirren in their first Challenge Cup campaign in 2017.

That’s as well as penalty successes against Livi again and Queen of the South on their way to the semi-finals in 2017/18.

They have been knocked out by Stenhousemuir and Queen’s Park on penalties as well as Dumbarton in that final four clash and St Mirren on their first attempt in 2017.

Dundee, meanwhile, lost to Elgin City at home in their last Challenge Cup campaign but are two-time winners of the competition.

Conversation