Dundee winger Paul McMullan is challenging himself to continue his rich vein of scoring form into the new Premiership campaign.
McMullan’s scored twice in pre-season, against Forfar and West Ham, and bagged a brace in the Dee’s 4-0 hammering of Brora Rangers on Tuesday night.
He’s already the Dark Blues’ assist king and the 25-year-old wide man is now eager to prove he can find the back of the net with regularity, as well as his team-mates.
Dee can’t have fear in top-flight test
“I’m delighted, absolutely,” he said of his goals after the Premier Sports Cup Group C win at Dens Park.
“I was able to find myself in positions that were a wee bit better to get goals on Tuesday night.
“That’s something I’ve been thinking about myself and challenging myself to do more of this season.
“It was nice for it to come off and get two goals.”
Making the step up to the top flight next term will be a challenge not only for McMullan but the whole Dundee squad.
🔥 Paul McMullan was on fire last night!
👏 His 2 goals and 2 assists inspired @DundeeFC to a 4-0 win over Brora Rangers last night.
This superb half volley on 49 mins the pick of the bunch. 👌#PremierSportsCup | @paulmcmullan_96 pic.twitter.com/18f69jE3pT
— Premier Sports 📺 (@PremierSportsTV) July 14, 2021
The former Dundee United man believes the best way for the Dee to have success is to have no fear and stick to their attacking principles.
He added: “You can’t have fear.”
“There’s going to be games where you need to play a different style and respect who you’re playing.
“But we’ve got good players in the team who want to attack and score goals.
“That’s the way we’ve set up and, hopefully, we can continue in that way.”
‘Perfect start’ against Brora
As for the Brora result, McMullan was delighted they were able to get their competitive campaign off to a winning start.
Three points in the cup, for him, is owed to a continuation of the momentum the Dark Blues built up last season on their way to promotion from the Championship via the play-offs.
Now with only one defeat in their last 11 competitive games in all competitions, the Dee have built up good habit’s McMullan hopes their carry into the league.
And, with much the same squad, he is hopeful it’s a seamless transition into the top tier.
“It’s probably the perfect start to the season, to be honest,” McMullan commented.
“We couldn’t have asked for much better and getting a clean sheet was always important for us as well.
“We had a good run of that through the pre-season and to carry that into the cup was good.
“There’s not been a lot of changes which I think has helped – it doesn’t often happen like that.
“There’s not been too many ins or too many outs.
“It’s near enough the same team as what we had late last season.
“We played so many games towards the end of the last campaign and in pre-season that we’ve not really had much of a break.
“Thankfully, it seems we’ve just kind of came back seamlessly, sort of as you were.
“We haven’t lost any momentum from the play-offs.
“The boys are all fit, ready to go and it looks like we’ve not really been away – which is always good.”