Dundee boss John Brown has left his players in no doubt about the importance of this weekend’s top-of-the-table clash with league leaders Hamilton.
Accies are six points ahead of the second-placed Dark Blues following Saturday’s fixtures which saw the Dens Park side concede a late, late equaliser to Falkirk while Alex Neil’s men stormed back from being 2-0 down at Cowdenbeath to win 4-2.
Brown is now determined his squad respond strongly to cut the points gap.
The manager said: “I’ve emphasised to the players the importance of Saturday’s game coming up. It’s a massive one.
“Hamilton are six points ahead of us and if they beat us on Saturday it’s a big gap.
“But we can get it down to three points and to do so we have to up our game levels.
“We didn’t create too many good goalscoring chances against Falkirk which was the disappointing thing.
“We’ve got to improve on that and there’s no better time to do so than this weekend away to Accies.
“They’ve been the form side so far and we have to show we can step up to the mark.”
Dundee could have former Scotland striker Craig Beattie available for the crunch game.
The 29-year-old missed the Falkirk fixture after having an injection in his back to cure a nerve problem. He was advised to rest for a week but returned to training on Monday and is raring to go again.
Brown added: “Craig was back in training and he looked sharp. He has had a week’s rest but he came back in and he looked the part.
“He hasn’t been able to do anything up until now but he’ll certainly be back in contention for the weekend.
“I think he would have given us something different in terms of physical presence against Falkirk so it will be good to get him back.”
Meanwhile, full-back Willie Dyer has also returned to training but he is a few weeks away from regaining full fitness following a lengthy injury lay-off.