Dundee star James McPake is on the road to recovery after coming through his first comeback game unscathed.

McPake suffered a horrific knee injury in last New Year's derby day win over Dundee United at Dens Park that required career-saving injury.

Since then, the 32-year-old has been working intensively to build up his fitness and took a major step towards targeting a long-awaited first-team return by playing 45 minutes of Wednesday night's Development game against Rangers at Forthbank.

The former Hibs and Coventry centre-back suffered no ill-effects although boss Paul Hartley was eager to insist no timescale would be placed upon his eventual return.

Hartley said: “James played for the Under-20s on Wednesday night which was really pleasing for us.

“He did really well playing 45 minutes. He felt good but naturally is a little tired this morning.

“He was just totally committed as usual and didn’t pull out at all during the game.

“James still has a good bit to go but the pleasing thing is he came through the game all right.

“Kevin Gomis is back from France and he should be OK for Saturday after his wife gave birth.

“Mark O’Hara did a little bit of light training today.

“He is probably needing another 10 days or so after his setback.

“I think it is just what happens with hernias. He is fine running but has a little pain with kicking.

“He is feeling a lot better though today. Hopefully he is not too far away.

“James Vincent has trained. He was ill before the Kilmarnock game after picking up a bug.

“He felt he had to give it a go but he had no energy."

Meanwhile, Hartley has urged his players to erase the memory of last weekend's 2-0 blip at Kilmarnock as they bid to return to winning ways at home to Ross County tomorrow.

Hartley said: “We have to move on. We are disappointed as we didn’t play well and we are better than what we showed as we have been playing well over the last few weeks.

“So it is time to move on and focus on Ross County. The boys have been excellent in training this week. I have been really pleased with how they’ve been.

“They were disappointed with the performance so I don’t need to keep telling them that but we have to move on as it is another big game for us this Saturday.

“Our home form has been good recently so hopefully we can continue that but it is another tough game.

“The league is so tight just now and we are looking to get a win to move up the table again.”

Dundee are bidding to move away from the basement zone as the festive period approaches with their manager calling on his troops to show mental toughness.

Hartley said: “The mental side of it always has a big part to play.

“It is a game at a time and we have a lot of big ones coming up.

“It is all about the next game for us but we have to be fully focused on it.

“Ross County are a point ahead of us but the games between us have always been good ones with lots of goals.

“I expect the same on Saturday. They put in a good performance against Hearts last week but we played well up there the first game of the season.

“We are at home and we want to continue the form we have shown at Dens over the last couple of games.”