Jason Cummings hailed as James McPake reveals Dundee striker 'wanted to get winner'

Dundee manager James McPake lauded Jason Cummings’ character after the striker came off the bench to score the equaliser in a 1-1 draw against Hearts.

Jason Cummings celebrates his goal against Hearts.

Cummings glanced home a long throw-in from Cammy Kerr to cancel out a first-half strike from John Souttar as Dundee built on last weekend’s 2-1 win over Aberdeen.

The forward has had to bide his time on the bench since the arrival of Leigh Griffiths from Celtic on loan, but McPake admitted that Cummings is knocking on the door for a starting place.

“He is a goalscorer, but he has also shown recently a real desire and real character, that maybe people would doubt, when he's not in the team,” said McPake.

“He has been brilliant in training. Even before today, he was in contention to start on Wednesday night.

“He has probably been disappointed (he has not been in the team) because his goal record since he came to Dundee has been good. But he is really bubbly and great to have about the place.

"But ultimately he is a goalscorer and you always know when he is on the pitch that you are likely to get a goal.

McPake revealed that Cummings was intent on scoring the winner after his header, explaining that the confident striker told him that he was going to do so.

"It probably sums him up, when you bring him over to give him a wee bit of instruction, he just says 'I'm going to get the winner',” added McPake. “He's got confidence in himself and that's great.

"He'll be disappointed that he never got the winner. He's content but he's not buzzing because he wanted to get the winner.

"He says he will score every time he plays. He even talked Cammy Kerr into having a long throw. We have been doing a long throw for three years and Cammy has never put one in. I'd love to say that's something we worked on but it wasn't.

"To be able to bring Jason on, you have Leigh Griffiths in your team, Cillian Sheridan, Danny Mullen, Paul McGowan never even gets on, we have real experience.

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