Dundee defender Paul McGinn has revealed how the players have been using training to ease their Celtic Park pain.
The Dark Blues welcome Ross County to Dens Park this afternoon and are desperate to recover from their 6-0 drubbing at the hands of Celtic last Sunday.
McGinn admitted that the wait between the full-time whistle sounding at the end of the Hoops game and today’s kick-off has been a long and agonising one.
Without a midweek match to quickly get that result out of their system, it has been training that has provided the only opportunity to vent frustration.
McGinn said: “You want a game straight away and I would have, ideally, wanted to play in midweek.
“We didn’t have that chance so what we have done instead is take it out on the other lads in training.
“It has been a bit feisty this week! That is because the boys want to get their frustrations out and training provides an avenue to do that.
“You are agitated, wanting to play and that can come out in training. Mind you, you have to guard against going over the top because you don’t want to injure folk.
“But it is good to see that everyone is hurting because of what happened against Celtic and that we are all determined to get back out there.”
McGinn was honest in his assessment of the display against the champions and is determined that it won’t get as bad as that again.
He said: “We got our tactics wrong, didn’t turn up and barely laid a glove on Celtic. That hurts and we need to prove ourselves again on Saturday now.
“It was just too easy for them. I should have had a penalty and we had a couple of other chances but, those aside, every time Celtic came forward we looked like we would concede.
“We won’t be the last team to lose away to Celtic but we just got it massively wrong.
“Still, you learn more from a bad result than you do from winning. Everyone knows that, on the ball, we are decent enough but at Celtic we never had enough possession.
“That meant we had to be harder to beat and stop balls getting into our box.
“Ross County will be a great test for us because that’s how they like to play, getting the ball into the box as often and quickly as possible.”
While the Dens men went without a midweek match, County grabbed their chance to thrash Falkirk 7-0 in the Scottish League Cup on Tuesday night.
McGinn added: “That was a great result. I don’t think may people saw that coming because Falkirk are no mugs and have started the season well.
“So that shows the kind of threat Ross County have and they will come here full of confidence.
“I think Jim McIntyre has done really well as manager up there and every time he has bought a player I have thought they would do well. I expect them to do a lot better this season than before and I’m not alone in that.
“However, they are going to come up against a determined Dundee team.”
If they are to shoot down the Staggies today, McGinn feels they need to find greater consistency in their play.
He said: “We have been inconsistent this season. There have been games where we have played really well against Kilmarnock, St Johnstone and for the majority of the Hearts game.
“However, there have also been matches when we have not reached the same standard so we need to change that.”
Midfielders Paul McGowan and Nicky Low miss out today. The former has an ankle injury while Low is sidelined with a virus, while Dylan Carreiro is on inter-national duty for Canada Under-23s.
Spanish defender Julen EtxaBeguren is fit after shaking off a hamstring injury.