Paul Hartley’s Dundee squad will be stretched to the limit for tonight’s League Cup tie against Raith Rovers with five first-choice players all likely to miss out through injury.
The Dark Blues have an important Premiership game coming up against champions Celtic at Dens on Sunday and the manager is determined not to take any risks at Dens tonight.
However, Hartley also acknowledged the importance of a cup run to the club as well as the fans and insists he will field as strong a side as possible against Grant Murray’s team.
He said: “We have a few struggling. Simon Ferry took a knock in training on Friday. It was just a collision and a clash of knees but he will not play.
“Kevin McBride got a knock and he is out as well as Kevin Thomson.
“Willie Dyer should be back training this week but will also not make the Raith game.
“Paul McGowan is struggling a little bit. We don’t want to risk him but we will see how he is.
“So there will be changes. We were probably going to do that anyway as we have had a hard period of games.
“We have a big match coming up on Sunday but this is still a game we want to win.
“We have told the players that we will have to use the squad throughout the season.”
Meanwhile, Rovers have an extra incentive to do well tonight after a bitterly disappointing showing in going down to a 4-0 defeat at home to Hearts at the weekend.
After consecutive wins against Dumbarton and Alloa the comprehensive loss was a massive set-back for the Stark’s Park men, who are now eager to atone for a poor display.
Murray said: “It’s good to have another game so quickly after Saturday.
“Obviously we were very disappointed to lose a game at home 4-0, albeit against a quality Hearts team, but to go straight back into a game three days later is probably the perfect scenario.
“We understand it will be a difficult game against a very good Dundee side that have started the season well, but we’ve got to get Saturday out of our system as quickly as we can.
“To do that we need to put on a performance and be at our best to have any chance of getting a result up at Dens.”