James Vincent vows to chip in with goals after Kane Hemmings' Dundee departure
Dundee midfielder James Vincent admits the departure of Kane Hemmings is a major blow - but he vowed that he and his team-mates would take the initiative to replace the Englishman's goals.
Hemmings left for Oxford on Wednesday after hitting three goals in two Betfred Cup games this season to follow on from his 25-goal debut campaign at Dens Park.
Attacking midfielder Vincent, a summer signing from Inverness, said: I never saw him in full flow but 25 goals is going to be a big loss. But it's up to the other lads now to step up to the plate.
We've got some good players here and the midfielders like myself have got to chip in with goals to make up for the deficit.''
Hemmings' departure - which came after Oxford made a bid which triggered his release clause - came as a shock on Wednesday evening.
The lads didn't know anything about it,'' Vincent said.
That's football, that's how it works. Players move on, players come in. Everyone knows that.
It's up to the boys to be the driving force now, to get the goals and make things happen, rather than Kane being the lad who did it last year.''
The transfer was the second part of a double blow for Dundee this week, coming less than 24 hours after a 2-1 Betfred Cup defeat at Peterhead left them needing major favours to go through to the second round as one of the four best runners-up ahead of Saturday's visit of Forfar.
But Vincent is not going to let a likely cup exit undermine his enthusiasm for the Ladbrokes Premiership season.
I wouldn't say (I'm) too disappointed,'' he said.Obviously it is frustrating but sometimes that's football. You can't focus on the negatives. You have to take the positives.
We have got what we like to think is a big season ahead of us all. This has happened, it's a new format and it is what it is. It's something we are going to have to get used to. It's not been smooth for other teams, Ross County are already out.
But we have played some good football. In terms of results it's been a little bit frustrating but there were a lot of positives to take from Tuesday night.
We played a lot of football and dominated for large periods, we just didn't get that goal and result. But more often than not, if we play that way, we will get results.''
Manager Paul Hartley will make late decisions on the fitness of Nick Ross, Mark O'Hara and Paul McGowan while Nicky Low is not yet ready to return from his ankle problem.