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.

Under-fire Dundee boss James McPake insists he can lead Dundee to the Premiership

Dundee boss James McPake.
Dundee boss James McPake.

Under-fire James McPake says he is “absolutely” the right man to take Dundee back to the Premiership.

The Dens manager admits this season has been a poor one to date with his side sitting in fourth place in the Championship with eight matches remaining.

However, he is confident in his ability to turn the team’s fortunes around after just two wins in their last eight games.

Despite their poor recent run, the Dark Blues can go level with second placed Dunfermline if they beat bottom side Alloa on Friday, for one night at least.

James McPake on the touchline as his Dundee side are beaten by Ayr.

And McPake points to the quality within his squad as the main reason he believes the dream of promotion can still be realised this season.

Asked if he was the right man to take the club up, he replied: “Absolutely. That’s not a false hope, an arrogance or a daft confidence in my own ability.

“It is what I see in the squad and the players that are here.

“So yes, I believe that we have the players and the staff that can take this club back to the Premiership.

“That’s our aim with eight games to go. We still have a chance of doing that so we are giving it our all.

“Hopefully come May, that’s where we’ll end up.”

Support

McPake has been leaning on the experience of former Scotland and Celtic manager Gordon Strachan, the club’s technical director.

And he’s sure he still has the backing of American owners Tim Keyes and John Nelms.

Asked if he has their full support he said: “Yes.

Dundee owners Tim Keyes and John Nelms, the club’s managing director.

“The aim at the start of the season was to get to the Premiership and we still have a chance to do that.

“We are under no illusions that we haven’t had a great season, far from it.

“The club is in fourth place so we should be much better off. We can go joint second with seven games to go but that is still not good enough for me.

“It is what it is but what I will say also is that we have a great support network here.

“Gordon is here as well and of course I am going to use him. He has been in these situations before where he has been under pressure and needing results.

Dundee technical director Gordon Strachan.

“My job is to pick a team to win games of football and if the team isn’t winning, the buck stops with me. I am big enough and ugly enough to accept that.

“I will do that and I will continue to do that.

“But I will reiterate that my belief is in the squad of players and the work we are doing.

“We just need to find that consistency to string those wins together and cement our play-off place to give ourselves the best chance to get up.”

‘We need to be much better’

After picking up a good win over Arbroath at the weekend, Dundee failed to follow up with a similar performance at home to Ayr United on Tuesday night.

An early gift of a goal to Mark McKenzie from Paul McGowan undid a decent start to the game for the Dark Blues.

From that moment on, McPake’s side never looked like getting themselves back into the game.

Just three days later they take on Peter Grant’s Alloa and the Dens boss is expecting a much-improved performance from his team.

McPake said: “Normally when you have a performance like that, you don’t sleep until your next game and that’s the case.

Ayr celebrate at Dens Park.

“We have a game tomorrow night and the focus quickly changed to how do we make this right at Alloa – the start of what is a massive eight-game period.

“The belief in the squad is there. I don’t think it is a lack of effort. The lads are trying and working hard.

“The mistake was uncharacteristic and then the heads dropped for whatever reason.

“It is up to us to pick a team that can go to Alloa and handle that if something goes wrong.

“We went down there earlier in the season and were lucky to come away with a point.

“We need to be much better all over the pitch which is what we have been working on since Wednesday morning.

“It is all in our hands and people might be worried about that because of the inconsistency but you look at the squad and the talent that is here.

I still believe in what we are doing and we can get this right.

“The aim at the start of the season was to somehow give ourselves the best chance to get into the Premiership by winning the league.

“Outwith that is the play-offs so we need to make sure we are in them and giving ourselves the best chance.

“That’s what we are focused on over the next eight games.”