Dundee travel to Celtic Park on Monday night for the Premiership curtain-raiser, where the champions will unfurl the league flag. Ethan Hamilton believes Steven Pressley's calm approach will keep his side unshaken by the occasion.
Pressley has built a young team at Dens Park, and Hamilton says the manager's steady hand is exactly what the dressing room needs as they face the toughest possible start.
Calming influence
“The manager just takes it bit by bit and that will be the main objective - to secure that first - and then progress from there really,” Hamilton said.
“The way the manager works, he’ll analyse the games, take what's positive and what we need to improve,” he added.
“I think his nature is beneficial for us. I definitely felt that last season. He uses his management and playing experience to keep us calm and quite level-headed through it all.”
Celtic's opening-day dominance
The scale of the task is clear: Celtic have not lost a home game on the opening day of a season in 76 years. Hamilton is under no illusions about the difficulty.
“Going to Celtic Park, you know how difficult the game will be and how good their players are,” he said. “But we will come up with a game plan and work as hard as we can.”
“We can take a bit of confidence from the games against them last season. We know that the first game of the season will be a tough task, but one that we’re prepared for and really, really looking forward to.”
Dundee have already played competitive fixtures in the Premier Sports Cup, and Hamilton believes that preparation helps. “We had a good pre-season and we’ve been in that mode of competitive fixtures for the last few weeks,” he said. “It was brilliant to get through the group stages to the next round. I feel in a good place, the lads do as well.”
Relishing the McGregor test
Hamilton is likely to line up against Celtic captain Callum McGregor, a challenge the former Lincoln player is relishing.
“It’s good. You know how brilliant he's been for years now,” Hamilton said. “I always look forward to games where you compete against high-level players.”
The 27-year-old also spoke about returning to Scottish football after years in England's League One. “I’d obviously grown up with Scottish football. You know how good the games are up here and it was nice to come home and have my family around,” he said.
“Obviously the manager gave me that opportunity. It's just been really good working with him and his staff. It's been a nice refresh for me after six or seven years down the road always in League One. It was nice to come and do something different and I'm really enjoying my football.”
Still developing at 27
Hamilton believes he is still improving under Pressley's guidance.
“Some people might say once you are past a certain age, you can't develop more as a player,” he said. “But he's massive on that kind of individual development at every age. He feels that everyone can get better. So he's really good in that way.”
“I think just giving me the confidence to go and play. I'm just grateful to him to let me come in and just enjoy my football, really. He wants me to be more demanding on the pitch which has been good.”
“Every day, even David Longwell will give you little bits here and there, along with Baz and all the staff. They all have that mentality to go and help you try to improve your game. I really enjoy working with all the staff.”
