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.

Joe Shaughnessy: Dundee pitch like old footage of George Best running around

The Dark Blues have the chance to secure top-six football.

Joe Shaughnessy said the playing surface at Dens reminds him of what George Best used to play on. Images: SNS.
Joe Shaughnessy said the playing surface at Dens reminds him of what George Best used to play on. Images: SNS.

The Dens Park surface reminds Dundee defender Joe Shaughnessy of footage from decades ago.

The Dark Blues skipper said the pitch was the worst he has seen it in Saturday’s defeat to Motherwell and reminded him of the type of playing areas graced by legends such as George Best.

A race against time and a lot of hard work led to last weekend’s game getting the go-ahead.

Dundee insist they are doing all they can to make sure Wednesday’s rearranged fixture with Rangers goes ahead, with rain forecast between now and kick-off on Wednesday night.

Shaughnessy said there are some drawbacks to playing on the Dens Park surface at the moment, though rejected any suggestion they gain an advantage from it.

Joe Shaughnessy: There’s nothing we can do about it

“The pitch was the worst I’d seen it last weekend,” said the Irish centre-back.

“It’s like going back to play on the pitches the way you saw them years ago – like the old footage of George Best running around!

George Best in action for Hibs versus Rangers.

“It’s not like we’re getting anything from it, there’s absolutely no advantage to us being the home team.

“Both teams have to play on it.

“It’s not great at all, it’s taxing on the legs too when you’re running through that kind of surface.

“It would be ideal if we had a perfect pitch but we don’t, so there’s nothing we can do about it.

“What will they make of it when they turn up? I dunno, they’ll have a laugh I suppose.

“They were here last time when it got called off, so they saw it and won’t be surprised.

“Nothing can be done about it so there’s no point worrying about it or making excuses.

Dundee captain Joe Shaughnessy. Image: SNS.

“Both teams will be playing on the same pitch, so we just have to get on with it.”

Second chance for Dundee to secure top 6

Dundee’s defeat on Saturday from a 2-0 lead means they missed the chance to secure top-six football.

Wednesday provides another chance, but to do so they will have to take all three points against a Rangers side that has dropped points in two of their previous 12 matches.

Shaughnessy said the pressure is all on the Glasgow club as they bid to leapfrog Celtic at the top of the Scottish Premiership.

“I don’t think we can play on any pressure because usually when you play the Old Firm the pressure is on them,” he said.

“They are expected to win every game anyway so it doesn’t really affect us and how we approach it.

Joe Shaughnessy said the pressure is on Rangers, not Dundee. Image: SNS.

“We just have to focus on ourselves and what we need to do to get a result.

“We haven’t had any points from these games so far this season so that’s something we’d like to put right.

“What a time to do it on Wednesday night.

“For a club coming straight back up, it would be a great achievement.

“It’s even a good achievement to be needing a point from two games to make it happen.

“When I spoke to the club in the summer the top six wasn’t mentioned, it was all about consolidating in the league.”

Conversation