Tony Docherty challenges Dundee to make MORE Scottish Cup history against Hearts
After Tony Docherty’s Dundee team broke their Dundee United curse, he now wants them to break their Hampden curse.
Tomorrow night, the Dark Blues travel to Tynecastle with the goal of securing their first spot in the Scottish Cup semi-final since their defeat by Gretna in 2006. In the fourth round, Dundee defeated United in a cup derby for the first time in 69 years. Now, Docherty wants his team to defeat Hearts and earn a long-overdue trip to the national stadium for a match in the last four.
Docherty insisted, “There’s a lot of excitement for this one. We said we want to make progress as a club and we didn’t make it to this stage of the cup last season. We’ve made that progress this year and I said at the beginning of this season we want to get as far as we can in both cups. We played in the League Cup and lost to Rangers, who were ultimately finalists, and now we’re in the Scottish Cup quarterfinals.
“I just learned that the team hasn’t advanced past the semi-finals of the Scottish Cup since 2006.” That’s nineteen years. We hadn’t defeated Dundee United in the Scottish Cup in 69 years prior to the most recent round. Thus, there are positive signs there, and this group of players currently has a fantastic potential.
Dundee has a point to prove when they travel to the capital. Everyone at the club is still upset about the Jambos’ 6-0 league victory over them last month. Docherty acknowledged: “Obviously. That day, no one at the football team did a good job representing themselves. There is some atonement in the fact that we have talented players to demonstrate that we are a good team. For whatever reason, we didn’t show ourselves well that day. That is incentive.
“The prize at the end of it, a first Scottish Cup semi-final at Hampden since 2006, is huge motivation for us, so we use every bit of motivation we can.”
Although Hearts will be in pain following their derby loss, Docherty thinks Neil Critchley has performed admirably in Gorgie overall. “Neil has done well,” he said. Their recent run, in which they have won six of the last eight games, serves as evidence of that. He’s done well, in my opinion, and Hearts has a wonderful team with some incredible players. They have done a fantastic job at hiring.
“With that, along with the manager and new players clicking, we are starting to see a level of play emerge at Hearts.” It is our responsibility to ignore that and highlight the talented players on the football team.
Although Lyall Cameron is missing for Dundee’s match, Docherty knows that leading scorer Simon Murray will pose a serious threat to his team.
Docherty affirmed: “It’s unfortunate that Lyall is suspended. However, it is an opportunity for another person. All of the players are quite excited. Although several teams are not playing this weekend, we still have a chance to go to the semi-finals. several teams would want to be in our shoes.
“There is a chance to win games when you have a player like Simon Murray on your squad who has 17 goals so far and is having an incredible season. Our defensive performances have significantly improved since Joe Shaughnessy was brought in.
Scott Fraser has resumed his regular training schedule, but the midfielder is probably too young for Friday.
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