The Dark Blues lost out on a place at Hampden to Hearts and are in the battle at the bottom end of the table
Hurting Tony Docherty reckons the derby is the perfect fixture to lift his Dundee side after their Scottish Cup exit.
The Dark Blues hopes of making it to Hampden were crushed after a 3-1 defeat at Hearts of Friday evening. Docherty admitted it was a blow but the fact that United cross the road for the derby on Sunday means that Dundee have no time to sit around and feel sorry for themselves.
Docherty stated: “Nobody is hurting more than me. I want to be a manager of a club who gets to cup finals and I am hugely disappointed we are not there.
“The next game is a derby and we just need to dust ourselves down and show we are ready and we show what we did in that period of the (Hearts) game which got us back into things.
“There is nothing better after a defeat like that to be going into a derby game. I just need to make sure that I make the players ready for that.
“I remind them of that response I got and that mentality and getting at Hearts and back into the game. That is the team we need to be.”
Docherty knows the pressure is on his team going into the final nine games of the season. They are just three points in front of bottom side St Johnstone and have not won in their last five games. Their only point came at home to the Saints in their last league outing. They did, however, beat Dundee United in the last derby in the Scottish Cup.
He claimed: “With the nine cup finals coming up, we need to be that team. If we do that it will give us a chance to win as many games as we can.
“We need to lick our wounds and go again. We are out of the cup. We are hugely disappointed.
“What’s ahead of us, I need to focus on and make sure the team is ready. We show that bravery, commitment and mentality to make sure we win as many games as we can in the last nine.”
The Dundee boss will be hoping Jordan McGhee can get over a knock to play in the derby. Experienced midfielder Scott Fraser could also come back in. He will have managed to get a couple of week’s training sessions under his belt before Sunday.
Docherty also admitted that McGhee’s injury restricted his performance in Gorgie. He admitted: “Jordan McGhee we took off at half-time. He was struggling with an injury and that did impinge on his performance. He doesn’t give the ball away as often as he did.”
Docherty knows he has got good players but many of them are young and experience the red-hot heat of a relegation battle for the first time. He knows it is his job to get his players ready and firing for what lies ahead.
The Dundee manager stated: “We got it back to 1-1. We had Hearts exactly where we wanted them.
“We had opportunities within that where we should pick the right pass. Those are moments in the game and whether it comes down to inexperience or naivety, but we pick the wrong pass and don’t get the chance to go and score.
“We should have gone on to win the cup tie but unfortunately we lost a second goal. I just thought in areas of the pitch, where I am used to seeing good technical players keeping the ball and we never did that. “It allowed Hearts to get a foothold in the game.
“It is trying to improve and develop the players. If they make mistakes they need to learn from it.
“If I put scenarios down in a training pitch then we make the right decisions but it is about making the right decisions in a stadium, where there is so much at stake.
“That is where we need to develop and get better. That is part of the process of developing players.”
