Dundee captain Josh Meekings has insisted that new manager James McPake has already had a positive impact in the Dens Park dressing room.

The Tayside club were relegated last term after a desperately poor campaign in the top flight with McPake the given responsibility for attempting to take Dundee back to the top flight following Jim McIntyre’s departure.

“He had to lift things after last season which was so disappointing,” said Meekings. “The whole club had a lot of negativity about it.

“That went right through from first team to the staff to the fans, obviously. But since the manager’s come in it’s been positive. We went away to Spain for pre-season and that worked very well.

“We took the momentum from that into the Cup. Now we need to take things into the league - it’s exciting times.

“The manager’s been brilliant since he’s come in and it’s all positive at the club.

“The manager’s been a breath of fresh ideas. He’s brought in his own ideas, his own players and I’m sure he’s still going to add to that.”

While Meekings would far rather have been plying his trade in the Premiership, he has admitted that the chance to savour a Tayside derby is intriguing.

Meekings missed last season because of a hip injury that eventually required surgery and there is a feeling from the former Inverness defender that he still has much to prove given his lack of fitness since Neil McCann signed him for the club.

He watched the meeting with Dundee United from the sidelines as he struggled with fitness injuries but is optimistic that he will have a far more pivotal role to play this term.

“I was watching the first one in the Cup and the atmosphere was unbelievable,” he said.

“I can’t wait to get involved in that and I’m sure everyone else will be too when the time comes. It’s slightly bigger than the Highland derbies!

“The rivalry’s bigger and I’m really excited and looking forward to it. Hopefully we’ll come out on top.

“But there are going to be so many challenging games this season. You can’t write everybody off, every week is going to be difficult. There will be challenging games every week, with every team having a different approach.

“Some teams will leave you to try and break them down, others will have a go at you. There are going to be ups and downs. But we just need to look at ourselves and try to do our job.”