Dundee’s James McPake offers one-word response to question on future following Celtic mauling

There was unmistakable irritation from Dundee manager James McPake that the link with the MK Dons vacancy rearing up in recent days formed part of the post-match post-mortem to his team’s tousing by Celtic.
Dundee manager James McPake despaired of his team's defending in the 6-0 crushing by Celtic...and of a question on his future amid links to MK Dons after it. (Photo by Craig Williamson / SNS Group)Dundee manager James McPake despaired of his team's defending in the 6-0 crushing by Celtic...and of a question on his future amid links to MK Dons after it. (Photo by Craig Williamson / SNS Group)
Dundee manager James McPake despaired of his team's defending in the 6-0 crushing by Celtic...and of a question on his future amid links to MK Dons after it. (Photo by Craig Williamson / SNS Group)

Yet, the distraction that the Dens Park club were driven to by the end of their 6-0 slaughter at Parkhead was matched by the distraction McPake allowed to develop by refusing to commit himself fully to his current post in the lead-up to the encounter.

Asked afterwards if he had anything to say on his own future, he delivered a flat “no” that will do nothing to shut-down the link, or assuage the fans’ fears over potential upheaval in the coaching department at their club.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Immediately pressing for him, is the absence of pressing that allowed Celtic to run amok. “Really poor, “ McPake offered of his team’s display.

“To get anything at a venue like this, you have got to be on top of your game and hope Celtic have an off day. We were nowhere near as good as we could be. To be fair to Celtic I thought they were excellent but my focus is on Dundee and defensively in particular, as a team, we were really poor.

“We had warned them all week about what they can do in and around the box with the combination play and one-twos. People can say what they want about Celtic,, but in my opinion at the very top end of the pitch they have still got some really, really good players, and Kyogo [Furuhashi] was outstanding. A lot of that maybe was down to really poor defending from us.”

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus impacts our advertisers. If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription.

Comments

 0 comments

Want to join the conversation? Please or to comment on this article.