GEORGE CRAN: Dundee do have a silver lining over call-off chaos

Will Dundee ever get their SPFL Trust Trophy quarter-final against Dunfermline played?

Will they ever play again?!

Of course they will but who knows when?

Groundsmen Brian and Brian Robertson have been knocking their pan in trying to get the Dens Park pitch playable.

But it feels like they are knocking their heads against a brick wall.

An issue with the pitch combined with the Scottish winter is playing havoc with the Dark Blues’ fixture list.

But is it really all that bad?

Silver lining

Yeah, we’d all like to see the team back on the pitch and ‘GAME ON’ being the shout.

But right now it’s not the worst thing in the world.

Dundee boss Gary Bowyer with the match officials as the match against Dunfermline is called off. Image: SNS.

We all know Gary Bowyer wants to strengthen his side, certainly after losing a number of players this window.

So there is a silver lining in all these clouds around Dens Park.

Whenever their postponed clash with Partick Thistle is played, the Dundee squad will (hopefully) be stronger.

They should have at least one more attacking option, ideally two, to add to the existing squad.

So, all being well, the Dark Blues will be in a better place when that game eventually comes around.

Quite possibly for the Challenge Cup quarter against James McPake’s Dunfermline, too.

Though that obviously is a far less important competition.

Fixture pile-up?

The perfectly natural instinct for football people is to assume a fixture pile-up is imminent when a number of games are called off.

But is that actually going to be the case?

No, it’s not.

We apologies for any inconvenience this has caused and will update on details of a rearranged date for the fixture as soon as we have this #thedee pic.twitter.com/DIXskpsKL4

— Dundee Football Club (@DundeeFC) January 14, 2023

Aside from a Friday night clash with Greenock Morton in February due to TV scheduling, Dundee currently have no midweek fixtures scheduled.

For the rest of the season.

Yes, Partick Thistle and Cove Rangers still have to be plugged in somewhere, along with the next attempt at playing Dunfermline.

But there are 15 weeks before the last match of the Championship season.

So it’s not going to be a case of Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, Tuesday for weeks on end.

Just ask any player who has played down south and they’ll be quite content with how Dundee’s end to the season looks right now.

🌧 pic.twitter.com/txkjfA7UXH

— Dundee Football Club (@DundeeFC) January 10, 2023

Of course, there’s always the potential of more problems adding to things – more call-offs and a replay from Saturday’s trip to St Mirren will do that.

But I don’t fear for Dundee’s season as it stands.

In fact, I think it might be a good thing with the club struggling to bring in the players they need to improve the squad.

Signings

As long as it is a stronger squad come the end of January. That’s the main thing.

Derick Osei departed Dundee on Monday (Image: David Young/Shutterstock).

I’m concerned at the failures so far but there is still plenty of time to go and we’ve seen how things ramp up towards the end of the window.

‘Being creative’ is the line used by boss Bowyer this week after Derick Osei moved on and the recruitment team appear to be doing everything possible to attract quality players.

But Bowyer looked as frustrated as I’ve ever seen him at Monday’s press conference.

I’ll repeat my message from last week’s column – the man needs backed and backed soon.