Paul Hartley Keen To Stretch Dundee’S Scottish Cup Winning Run

[JoeCovenant]

Dundee boss Paul Hartley is eyeing an extended William Hill Scottish Cup run after overcoming the threat of in-form Falkirk.

A Kane Hemmings double and a Gary Harkins breakaway goal helped Dundee to a 3-1 fourth-round win over the Ladbrokes Championship side at Dens Park.

Hartley said: “It was probably one of the hardest draws we could have got but I thought we did a good job. We were professional, the goals were good and we were always a threat in the final third. But I’m just happy to get through because I always thought it was going to get tricky.

“We know what’s in front of us, away from home against Dumbarton. We will pay them the respect we paid Falkirk. It’s a hard one but one we feel we can win.â€

When asked about his side’s prospects of going all the way, Hartley said: “We’ve got a strong squad. It’s just getting through the games in the cup, no matter how you win, scraping through or good performances, we’ll take any win.

“If we keep progressing then great. We would love to do something in terms of getting silverware or getting close to it. It’s all about the next game and we’ll need to have a high level of performance.

“But we have guys who will score goals for us. Kane is in incredible form. He had a difficult spell at Barnsley but he is just enjoying his football now.â€

Falkirk boss Peter Houston felt his side were unfortunate, especially given Hemmings looked offside before netting the 39th-minute opener, which was cancelled out by Paul Watson two minutes later.

Houston said: “I think for an hour we were the better side. We will learn from that because when you lose your discipline a bit you get hit on the counter-attack. Take nothing away from Dundee but we were over-exposed at the second goal when they went down the right-hand side. We needed to go in front to give us something to hold on to.â€

On the opener, Houston said: “It looked offside from where I was. There were a couple of decisions the assistant referee gave for us which I thought were offside, I don’t know if the crowd were getting to him at that far end. It took a big deflection as well.â€

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