Dundee boss eyes Hearts 'retribution' after Tynecastle Scottish Cup exit ahead of Scottish Premiership clash

They lost 3-1 to the Tynecastle club last month despite levelling the tie just after half time when Joe Shaughnessy cancelled out Sander Kartum’s cracking opener.

Neil Critchley's side quickly got back in front after an own goal from ex-Hibs ace Simon Murray with Kartum scoring a second to secure the Jambos’ spot in the semi-finals.

“I was really disappointed in our last meeting,” Docherty told The Courier. “I didn’t want to be having a weekend off there, I wanted to be a semi-finalist in the Scottish Cup. We had the opportunity to do that when we played Hearts, particularly when we got the game back to 1-1. That was frustrating. This weekend is an opportunity for the players and myself to try and go and put that right, because we got ourselves into a good position in that match. Unfortunately, we didn’t take that opportunity.”

Hearts ‘unlucky’ against Aberdeen in Scottish Cup semi-final defeat, says Tony Docherty

The Jambos come into Saturday’s match on the back of a 2-1 extra-time loss at Hampden to Aberdeen after Michael Steinwender and Cammy Devlin were both sent off.

And Dee boss Docherty reckons Hearts were “unlucky” - saying that his side will be to be on the top of their game to get a result in the capital.

He said: “I want to see a real mentality. When you go to stadiums like Tynecastle, you know what you need to do to win the game. We’ve done it before, so it’s important that we show that mentality. It’s important that you play. You make sure you are up for the challenge the home crowd brings. You try and get your own game plan over your opponents.

“We’ll be endeavouring to do that all week in training and hopefully bringing it to fresh in the game on Saturday. I thought Hearts were unlucky against Aberdeen. Hearts have got very good players, a really strong squad of players. We need to make sure we’re ready for whatever team comes out. We need to be at our best. That’s the whole objective of training this week, to make sure we’re at our best to give us the best possible opportunity of picking up points.”

Dundee have five cup finals to stay in Scottish Premiership starting with Hearts clash

“They are five cup finals – there’s no other way of saying it,” Docherty said of his side’s bottom six outings with Dundee second-bottom and currently in the relegation play-off position.

“There are five games that you need to do your all and give absolutely everything to take as many positive results as you can. But I’ve always said it’s about performance. If we get that level of performance, then that will lead to us picking up points. I want it to be the level of performance we were at in the four league games previous to Hibs. It’s the levels of performance that will enable us to be successful in this last period of the season. Mentality and spirit comes into it as well as performance levels at this stage.”

“Obviously, we were in a brilliant place going into the Hibs game (4-0 loss at Easter Road). The team were playing really well. There was a real feelgood factor. But the performance against Hibs wasn’t what we were looking for and it is important that we bounce back from that quickly. We’re striving to get back to that place that we need to be in for these five important games.”

Meanwhile, the Courier reports that ex-Hearts player Scott Fraser could return to Dundee’s matchday squad for the first time in six months after being out injured.