Dundee boss Gary Bowyer says there were plenty of positives to take out of their friendly double-header this week.
The Dark Blues gaffer will take charge of his first competitive match on Saturday as Hamilton travel to Dens Park in the Premier Sports Cup.
Though their pre-season schedule ended with a 1-1 draw at Montrose with Alex Jakubiak’s opener cancelled out by Craig Johnston’s second-half strike, Bowyer was pleased with what he saw from his new side.
And that included three trialists, who all got minutes on the park.
Bowyer said: “It was great to come to Montrose and you can see they have been together for five years with Stewart Petrie in charge and the way they play was a good challenge for us.
“It proved that.
“It also gave us the chance to have a little look at playing two strikers (Zak Rudden and Jakubiak) and I think the two of them combined ever so well.
“I’m pleased, we created some really good opportunities. Their goalkeeper made some good saves, in particular in the first half.
“Obviously we are disappointed there wasn’t a foul given on Ryan Sweeney for their goal but the most important thing was getting minutes in the legs and no injuries.
“We’ve managed to do that and we played on astro, something we will have to deal with in the Championship.”
Trialists
Bowyer got a first look at former Carlisle man Danny Devine in the weekend win at Peterhead.
He got another run-out for the final half-hour at Links Park, slotting in at right-back after playing in central midfield on Saturday.
Devine was joined by a couple of other new faces with fans putting in detective work as the game wore on to identify the two trialists.
Starting the match was Kyle Barker, a 21-year-old midfielder who left Peterborough United at the end of last season.
Coming on in the second half was midfielder Tyler Frost, who began his career at Reading before spending two years in League Two with Crawley Town.
He played on the left wing but can also operate from the right.
“Kyle and Tyler only came up Sunday so have only trained on Monday,” Bowyer added.
“I thought both gave good accounts of themselves – I’m slightly disappointed I can’t play them on Saturday to have a further look but I understand the rules.
“We’ll keep having a look. We’ll monitor them in training this week and they will possibly come into contention against Blackburn next week.
“Danny Devine, who I’ve known from Bradford, played in a different position tonight because of the personnel we’ve got but he showed his utility.”
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