Dundee boss Neil McCann has explained his reasoning for handing Josh Meekings his debut for the club in the intimidating surroundings of Celtic Park on Saturday.
The 25-year-old centre-half had not played for 10 months after having an operation on a knee injury.
However, McCann showed his faith in the former Ipswich and Inverness defender opting to play Meekings from the start while putting Kerr Waddell, who was his side’s two-goal hero against Hearts before the international break, on the bench.
Meekings played at the centre of a back three against the Hoops with Jack Hendry – who was a stand-out performer until he had to go off in the 70th minute with a cut eye – being employed on the right to combat the threat posed by Scott Sinclair.
McCann said: “Jack was exceptional against Hearts playing as the middle man.
“Kerr played to the right and I had decisions to make about my centre-backs (for Celtic game).
“I felt Josh could step into the middle of the park and that would allow Jack’s pace to cope with Sinclair if we were leaving ourselves a bit open.
“I felt he was fantastic but I have to say when he went off we were thinking it was a devastating blow however big Marko (Mark O’Hara) went back there and I thought he was great.
“Our bottle didn’t crash, we weren’t thinking damage limitation. We put on young Jess Curran who has been exceptional for the 20s and we continued to go for it.
“I felt we went toe to toe with Celtic.”
