Dundee’s young striker Matty Henvey has booked himself a seat on the plane to Portugal.
The 18-year-old frontman, who last week signed a new one-year deal with the Dark Blues, will travel to the Algarve with his teammates today for the club’s week-long training camp in the Iberian sunshine.
Henvey hit the winner in Monday night’s 1-0 friendly victory over Cowdenbeath at Central Park.
It was a fine finish that caught the eye of manager Neil McCann and Henvey will be keen to get more chances to impress his gaffer when the Dens men face Mansfield Town in a training match on Saturday then local side SC Farense in a friendly on Tuesday.
Dundee boss McCann said: “Young Matty produced a great finish against Cowdenbeath and did really well for us.
“It was a typical Matty goal, getting in behind the defence.
“That is something we really need to look for in the new season – the threat over the top.
“He will join us in Portugal.”
Henvey made his debut for the first team against Celtic on Boxing Day and went on to make another four appearances, opening his goal account against Hamilton on January 27.
His happiness was short-lived, though, as he was caught by a high tackle from Accies player Darian McKinnon which left him with a knee injury that ruled him out for the rest of the campaign.
McCann added: “He was really unlucky when he scored that goal against Hamilton then picked up that horrible injury.
“It never gave him much of a chance to get back in because the injury just lingered.
“So Matty has signed a new deal and he has come back hungry.
“There is a bit of competition there for him because we have Sofien Moussa there and Jean Mendy has joined us.
“We might look to get one or two others in but Matty always gives us that goal threat and he proved that against Cowdenbeath.
“He is still young and is still learning the game. There are things that he still needs to work on.
“What does come naturally to him, though, is the ability to get in behind and pose a threat. He doesn’t really worry too much about getting involved in inter-play.
“He just wants to get on the shoulder of the defender and these boys are hard to find.”
McCann has yet to decide whether or not to take the club’s three trialists – Brian Nana-Sinkham, Frank Jones and Adil Nabi – with them to the Algarve.
He said: “I have not made my mind up yet and just wanted to take a look at them.
“The young boy Frank who came in at the back there was a last-minute thing because Genseric (Kusunga) had a wee bit of an incident in training and we just didn’t want to risk him, especially on that surface. He came in and did really well I thought.
“He (Nabi) has terrific ability and I think that is very obvious.
“I think he is maybe lacking a bit of conditioning but I’ll definitely have a look at him.
“But these are decisions we will take before we go away.”
