Ross County and Dundee shared goals aplenty in their three encounters last season but Staggies manager Jim McIntyre wants his side to be harder to breach this time around.
County host the Dark Blues in today’s Premiership opener, with both sides looking to get their league campaign off to a flying start after being knocked out of the group stage of the Betfred Cup last month.
After a 3-3 draw at Dens Park in September last season the two sides went on to exchange 5-2 victories in their next two encounters, with County pipping Paul Hartley’s side to a top-six place.
McIntyre expects the two sides to show plenty attacking intent once again and he said: “Paul’s done a great job – top six the season before last and missed out narrowly on the last day last season, where it could have been either one of us. There’s not much between the teams.
“We both like to get the ball down and play and attack, hence the reason last season they were quite high-scoring games. Neither one of us wanted to sit in.
“I think both of us were unhappy in certain games last year about the amount of goals lost but Paul’s teams are set up to attack and so are we. That’s sometimes when you see the good players that each team has excel and create goalscoring opportunities.
“From our point of view we want to be far more formidable this season, in terms of preventing giving away goals. The League Cup campaign, as disappointing as it is to be out, we’ve certainly shown we’re still a major threat in front of goal and created numerous chances.”
Both sides have been forced to shuffle their squads, with County losing influential midfielder Jackson Irvine to newly-promoted English Championship side Burton Albion, while Dundee’s leading scorer Kane Hemmings departed for Oxford United.
McIntyre expects the two sides to adapt and he added: “We’ve both lost a big player each and we’ve both added players, so there’s been a wee bit of change.
“We are both missing a player each who had a major say last year but that’s why we have a squad. There are some fantastic players at Ross County and likewise at Dundee.”