Dundee boss John Brown has told his players they can’t afford to dwell on their latest defeat or they risk a real doing from high-flying Inverness.
The Dark Blues head in to tonight’s League Cup third round tie on the back of a disappointing 3-1 loss to Falkirk in the Championship at the weekend, and must now regroup for a what will be a tough task against one of the country’s in-form teams.
But while Dundee will go into this evening’s fixture as underdogs, Brown believes his players are still well capable of providing the perfect response to Saturday’s showing by sending Caley crashing out of the competition at Dens Park.
Bomber said the players and management held a post-mortem into the Falkirk loss and agreed they have no time to feel sorry for themselves.
“It’s ideal to have Inverness, the form team in Scotland, coming here, so you can’t dwell on the previous game,” he said.
“You look forward to the next one and that’s what we’ve got to do.
“The players have got a lot to prove after Saturday’s performance and they know that I’m expecting to see a reaction.
“Inverness have been excellent this season and they are a tough nut to crack, so we need to have everybody turning up or else it’s going to be a sore one.
“We’ve had a meeting about Saturday the players have had their bit to say, I’ve put my points over, and now we’re gearing up for the next game. We know we’re in for a game and it’ll be about what the players do over the 90
minutes.
“If you only get one chance in the game, you’ve got to take it, and that’s something that we’ve lacked.
“We’ve had a number of good clean sheets, four out of six games, but the two games we’ve conceded we’ve downed tools and been disappointing, so I’m expecting more from the players.”
Brown spoke out for the first time since the weekend setback and admitted his players owe supporters the appropriate response.
“It was a poor result,” he acknowledged. “We never played and that’s the disappointing part of it. We had chances before they even scored Jim McAlister was through one on one with the goalkeeper and didn’t hit the target but that’s been our season up to now.
“We’ve had opportunities and slackness has cost us. I think the players to a man would admit that there weren’t many who could hold their hands up and say they had a good game.
“We still had chances in the game but the game was dead and buried once Falkirk got the second goal but that’s the disappointing thing.
“It’s not for lack of effort, it’s just decision-making in the forward areas and the defensive areas where we let ourselves down.”
Beating a team from the league above is difficult at the best of times in cup ties, but Brown is under no illusion of the size of the task facing his players tonight.
Inverness remain top of the Premiership and suffered their first defeat of the season at Aberdeen on Saturday, so Brown expects Caley to visit the City of Discovery in determined mood.
“Inverness are well organised and in the game I was involved with last season we managed to draw the game but they were big, physical good players,” he said.
“Billy McKay’s got a goal threat and he scored in the last 10 minutes of the game to get a point for Inverness in that game, where we should have put the game to bed.
“You would expect Celtic to win the league but Inverness will not be far away and they will give the likes of Motherwell and Dundee United a run for their money.”