| Standing in their way are Ayr United, who make the trip to Dens on Saturday and, although the Honest Men haven’t seen much action of late, Jocky expects them to be well prepared.
Brian Reid’s side have only played two games — a 1-0 Scottish Cup win at home to Brechin and a 1-0 league defeat at Ross County — since they visited Dens almost two months ago.
That day, the Dark Blues ran out 3-1 winners, but Jocky knows past victories are no guarantee of future success.
He said, “We possibly could be a bit more relaxed, but it’s a cup-tie and it’s more to do with getting into the next round than how we do performance-wise.
“We’ve been playing regularly and that might help.
“But I’m sure Ayr have still been training hard and have managed to get in some bounce games.”
Meanwhile, Jocky admitted, while the benefit of undersoil heating has allowed his men to get fixtures played, the downside has been seeing the pitch begin to look a little worse for wear.
He went on, “We’ve had the heating on a lot and that guarantees us games, which is a good thing, but there is no doubt the pitch is poorer for it.
“I’m not making excuses, but we try to play a passing game and it certainly doesn’t help.
“But I’ve seen games on TV and some of the pitches have looked terrible. It’s probably been worse this season because it has stayed cold for so long, which has seen heating systems having to stay on for a longer period.”
On the playing front, Richie Hart has recovered from the dead leg which saw him go off against Ross County, while Eddie Malone, who has a similar complaint, is expected to return to training tomorrow.
Defender Gary MacKenzie comes back into the plans having served a ban. |
