STRIKER Henrik Ojamaa won’t be wasting time wondering how crisis-club Rangers will react in today’s televised encounter at Dens Park.
The Dark Blues welcome the managerless Ibrox outfit to Tayside as uncertainty continues to cloud their long-term future with caretaker boss Graeme Murty set to take charge for the second week running, following last weekend’s narrow Scottish Cup victory over Championship club Morton.
Paul Hartley’s hosts have been something of a sideshow in the build-up to this afternoon’s live clash and Estonian international Ojamaa, who joined recently on loan from Dutch side Go Ahead Eagles, says they don’t mind as the last thing they will be preoccupying themselves with is worrying about their opponents state of mind in the wake of Mark Warburton’s recent departure from the helm.
Ojamaa said: “It’s tough to say how their players will respond. There’s no point in us thinking about how it will affect them. We just need to make sure we focus on ourselves and everybody brings their best performance on Sunday. How the opposition are doing or how they are feeling – that doesn’t matter. It’s about concentrating on your own game and helping the team out as best you can.”
Dundee’s last win over the Glasgow giants was in 2001 but Ojamma doesn’t necessarily believe this represents the best time to end that sorry sequence.
“Maybe it’s a good time to play them but sometimes with a change like this, it can galvanise the players and lift them or other times it will disrupt them, there’s no telling. It’s very hard to guess.
“As individuals, everybody will respond differently, some on the fringes get a chance or others will be upset, so you never know.
“But our focus is 100 per cent on us. We’re not going to think about how they are feeling or doing at all.”
Having last tasted defeat on home soil at the hands of Patrick Thistle back in late October, Dundee have every right to feel a degree of confidence as they push for a top-six finish.
“Our home form has been good and we just need to make sure we convert these draws into wins now and we’ll be fine, Ojamaa said.
“We have to be more clinical and limit the opposition to few chances because it’s a different level of opposition on Sunday.
“Everyone’s been very welcoming since I came here. It’s a good group of players and also the staff and everybody around the club has made me feel very welcome. I’m enjoying it and looking forward to the Rangers game.
“I’m feeling better and sharper with every game. I feel I can help the team and, looking at our players, we’re a good enough squad to push for the top six, which is our goal.
“We just have to put a little run together. I think there’s no reason why we can’t get a positive result on Sunday. We can be confident going into it.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel