Latest news with #Dundee
South Wales Guardian
8 hours ago
- Sport
- South Wales Guardian
Rangers boss Russell Martin begins Premiership reign with trip to Motherwell
Martin's first William Hill Premiership match in charge will see him go head to head with former Norwich team-mate Jens Berthel Askou, who was recently installed as Motherwell manager. The fixture will kick off at 5.30pm on Saturday, August 2 and will mark the weekend of the 130th anniversary of the first game at Fir Park. There is only one Premiership game taking place at 3pm on the Saturday, which sees Stuart Kettlewell start his Kilmarnock reign with the visit of newly-promoted Livingston. Falkirk end their 15-year absence from the top flight with a home game against Dundee United the following afternoon in one of four matches to be screened live by Sky Sports over the opening fixture card. Former Hearts captain Steven Pressley begins his first league campaign as Dundee head coach at home to Hibernian on the Sunday, following the Leith club's Europa League tie with Midtjylland. Champions Celtic will unfurl the league flag later that day ahead of hosting St Mirren in a 4.30pm kick-off. Hearts and Aberdeen fans will need to wait until 8pm on the Monday to see their teams start the season at Tynecastle as new head coach Derek McInnes begins his Premiership campaign at home against one of his former clubs. Martin's first league game at Ibrox will kick off at 5.30pm on August 9 with Dundee the visitors in a game to be shown live by Premier Sports. Celtic have the chance to atone for their Scottish Gas Scottish Cup final defeat by Aberdeen when they travel to Pittodrie the following day for a 12.30pm kick-off. There are no league games in the third weekend of August with the second round of the Premier Sports Cup taking place. Rangers head coach Martin will experience his first derby in charge on Sunday, August 31, when Celtic visit Ibrox for a noon showdown. The festive schedule is slightly less hectic than usual with only one midweek slot rather than the usual two. Six matches are scheduled for Saturday, December 27, including an Edinburgh derby at Easter Road, which has been earmarked for live television coverage at 12.30pm. There is a full fixture card three days later with Celtic travelling to Fir Park before hosting Rangers in a 12.30pm kick-off on Saturday, January 3. All teams – including a Dundee derby at Tannadice – play that afternoon. There are six midweek fixture dates in total including two in succession in early February, either side of the Scottish Cup fifth round. The final games before the split are pencilled in for April 11, when St Mirren will be aiming to seal a fourth consecutive top-six finish when they travel to Celtic Park. As in recent seasons, there is a full midweek card in the final week of the season, which ends on May 17-18. The SPFL season in general will kick off on Friday, August 1 when Arbroath return to the Championship with a home game against Ayr United. St Johnstone return to second-tier football with a home game against Partick Thistle the following day and will face fellow relegated side Ross County in the second weekend of the season. East Kilbride's first SPFL game will see Spartans visit K-Park in a League 2 encounter on August 2.
BBC News
8 hours ago
- Sport
- BBC News
Which club has the toughest start?
Opta have crunched the numbers to rank the difficulty of each Scottish Premiership club's first four fixtures of the 2025-26 to their data model, St Mirren have the toughest start, followed by two clubs helmed by new managers, Dundee and for the easiest, Hibernian and capital rivals Hearts should got off to a flier, right? Take a look below to see where your side places...
Scotsman
10 hours ago
- Sport
- Scotsman
Steven Pressley's odd Dundee manifesto amid fan backlash - and why contract was signed on way to airport
Ex-Hearts and Celtic defender back in dugout after six year absence Sign up to our Football newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... As Steven Pressley tells it, he was sitting in a service station car park en route to the airport when he signed the contract signalling what he hopes will be a new beginning back in Scotland. There have been more auspicious starts in Dundee's long history of appointing managers. There have certainly been more popular appointments, although the Dens Park club under the present ownership haven't tended to factor in fan opinion when reaching such decisions. One need only remember Mark McGhee's arrival out of the blue in 2022. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'Without Gordon (Strachan), it would be unlikely I would be sitting here,' he admitted when Dundee brought the former Aberdeen and Celtic strike out of cold storage – he hadn't managed at a serious level for five years. New Dundee head coach Steven Pressley is unveiled to the media during a press conference at Gardyne Training Centre on Friday. (Photo by Mark Scates / SNS Group) | SNS Group It's much the same story with Pressley, both in terms of the Strachan endorsement – he regards the Dundee technical director as a mentor – and managerial inactivity (he was last in the dugout in 2019, for Carlisle United). He has, though, been gainfully employed in recent times at Brentford as head of individual player development, which, he explained, meant he had day-to-day involvement with the first-team squad and similarly regular contact with new Spurs manager Thomas Frank. Nevertheless, Pressley felt he had run his course in this role. He claims that it was this sense of wanting to see what else was out there rather than an approach from managerless Dundee that lay behind him stepping away from the go-ahead English Premier League club. 'I didn't leave to come here, I genuinely didn't,' he said. One Dundee fan re-posted the announcement Pressley was leaving Brentford on X, adding the comment: 'Don't even think about it, Dundee.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Reader, they thought about it to the extent that they offered Pressley the job to the evident anguish of a huge volume of supporters. Threads on the main Dundee fans' forum might extend to 30 or 40 pages if a particularly contentious game, for example, is being discussed. The one covering Pressley's appointment currently sits at 149 pages – and counting. Little wonder he was so keen to get the contract signed in case managing director John Nelms changed his mind. "I actually signed the contact for this job on the way to the airport," he recalled. Pressley and his wife, June, were setting off for a silver anniversary trip to Vietnam. "As soon as I signed, I discussed it with my wife and said, 'Look we're going to have to cut this short'," he added. It was originally meant to be 18 days. They did 11. "She's been with me for 25 years so she's lived the football life, she understands,' he said. He confirmed that they remain married. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad New Dundee head coach Steven Pressley is unveiled to the media during a press conference at Gardyne Training Centre on Friday. (Photo by Mark Scates / SNS Group) | SNS Group 'I like to remain in my own bubble' Such commitment does not tend to apply to the post of Dundee manager, where it feels like an achievement to reach the equivalent of a cotton anniversary – two years. Tony Docherty, his predecessor, didn't even get to that despite a top six finish in his first season and keeping the team up in his second, despite challenges. A proportion of fans were unhappy, that's true. But that isn't to say they welcomed who the club chose to replace him. While it might have served to further antagonise those Dundee fans already reeling from his recruitment, leaving the country seemed like a wise move for Pressley at the time. He might not have enjoyed reading what was being said about him. 'Honking,' claimed one fan in the local evening newspaper, with the word duly included in the front page headline. The time between the announcement and unveiling while Pressley crammed in sight-seeing visits to the Mekong Delta might actually have proved helpful, since emotions have settled somewhat. He claimed not to have seen any of the initial reaction. 'I have no social media,' he maintained. 'None at all. I never will have. Just because I like to remain in my own little bubble.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad He followed this by issuing what some felt was an odd manifesto when managers often go out of the way to ingratiate themselves, especially when they are already portrayed as losing the public relations fight from day one. Pressley explained that he has learned from his Falkirk days. Some might recall him making grand claims, including ensuring fans they would stay up when he was appointed in February 2010 (they didn't). 'Like all management it very much depends on what lens you're looking through,' he said, when the negative reaction of many Dundee fans was put to him. 'If you are a Dundee supporter looking for a manager with a history of producing titles and winning honours then I'm not your man. I am not your guy, I don't profess to be your guy.' It was tempting to reply that no manager since Davie White won the League Cup with Dundee in 1973, two months after Pressley was born, had been "that guy" so it wasn't necessarily a problem. Still, it was a comment that made ears prick up. 'I hope I can demonstrate that moving forward but my career to date doesn't suggest that (I can win honours),' he continued. 'But certainly, from a development perspective and certainly from creating a style of play and the way a team performs, I feel I have demonstrated that over the course.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Steven Pressley is congratulated by Andy McLaren after netting a penalty for Dundee Utd against Rangers at Tannadice in October 1997. | SNS Group 0141 221 3602 'I'm a lot calmer, a much smaller ego...' No-one was picketing outside the Dundee training ground, where Pressley handled his first assignment in impressive manner. He looked smart in a Dundee tie and dark blue lightly checked jacket as well as chinos with a contemporary, ankle-showing cut. Now 51, it could be argued that he's a bit old for that now but then maybe it's the result of being among students. He has just finished a degree in strategy and management from the University of Liverpool, which has given him another string to his bow. Among the skills developed while studying was 'self-reflection' and how to be a leader. He didn't have to be the chest-thumping type character, who some might recall from his playing days. Hearts fans certainly do, given it was such theatrics that almost caused a riot when Pressley celebrated a Celtic win on his first return to Tynecastle since leaving to sign for the Parkhead side. 'When I was a player, I was generally a captain,' he said. 'And then I went from that to being a manager almost immediately. Almost, through your title alone, you can make people do things. Then you go into a job (at Brentford) which I was involved in for four years where you don't. You have to build relationships. I do think as a person I've changed a lot. I'm a lot calmer, a lot more controlled, a much smaller ego…' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad He remembers wanting to take on the world when he was younger. Now it might be enough to get the better of the lot across the street, where of course he played when he was a younger man and which might account for some of the opposition to his appointment. He finished on the winning side in three out of four Dundee derbies in the second tier in 1995-96, under then Dundee United manager Billy Kirkwood – his head of recruitment at Dundee for the time being.
Scotsman
11 hours ago
- Climate
- Scotsman
Scotland Weather: Where will be the hottest today? Here's the weather for the weekend across the country
Scotland could see its hottest day of the year on Friday, according to the Met Office Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Scotland is set for another scorcher as forecasters predict Friday could be the hottest day of the year so far. The Met Office expects temperatures of around 25C in Glasgow by 3pm, while Edinburgh will bask in 26C heat. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Dundee will also see highs of around 26C, with Aberdeen seeing the mercury hit a slightly cooler 24C. The biggest hot spots will be around the Scottish Borders, where experts forecast temperatures of 27C. The good news is, the sunny weather will continue into the weekend in most parts of the country, with 27C the highest temperature expected for a second day in a row in the Borders on Saturday. In England, meanwhile, temperatures could reach as high as 34C in some areas. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Deputy Chief Meteorologist, Dan Holley, said: 'The highest temperatures from this hot spell are forecast for Saturday, with low 30s Celsius fairly widely across England, and up to 34C possible in eastern areas. 'Despite this, the more uncomfortable heat will be in northern and western areas initially, where despite somewhat lower temperatures the air will be more humid. Scotland is set to enjoying some scorching hot weather this weekend. 'While Saturday will be a dry and fine day for many, a few showers or thunderstorms will be possible across northern and western parts of the UK, with an increasing risk of some intense thunderstorms developing across portions of north Wales, northern England and southern Scotland later in the afternoon and into the evening hours, which could bring heavy downpours, frequent lightning, gusty winds and possibly large hail. 'The nights will also be quite warm, with the possibility of temperatures not falling below 20C in some areas, making it hard to sleep. This is what we term a 'tropical night'.'Temperatures will ease from the west on Sunday as fresher air arrives from the Atlantic, although parts of East Anglia and the far southeast of England could still see 28-29°C for a time.'
BBC News
11 hours ago
- Sport
- BBC News
Derbies, festive schedule & more - Dundee's standout games
The first Dundee derby of the 2025-26 Scottish Premiership season will take place on Saturday, 30 Pressley's side welcome Dundee United to Dens Park for a 15:00 BST boss Pressley's first jaunt down to his former club in the league will be the new year showdown on Saturday, 3 else awaits the Dark Blues on the festive schedule? Their last game before Christmas is away to Motherwell on Saturday, 20 December then they see out 2025 with home matches against newly-promoted Falkirk and final derby of the pre-split season is pencilled in for Saturday, 14 men round off the pre-split campaign away to Killie on Saturday, 11 at the fixtures, where do you think Dundee will be after 10 games? Share your views here.
