Dundee boss Paul Hartley says he is not in the least surprised that goalkeeper Scott Bain has made a big impression since breaking back into the first team at Dens Park.
The 23-year-old shot-stopper gained more plaudits following his performance in the weekend’s 1-1 draw with Aberdeen and had plenty of pundits suggesting that he has a bright future if he continues in that vein of form.
And having worked with him as a player and a manager over the years, Hartley insists he was always confident the keeper would make it despite being released by Aberdeen four years ago.
Asked about Bain’s latest assured display between the sticks on Saturday, the Dens boss noted: “Scott has been doing that for the last few months.
“He’s at the top of his game and he’s still a young man at 23, so he keeps getting better and better.
“He comes and catches everything.
“He’s not a goalkeeper who punches anything, he comes out to catch the ball and commands his box.
“He’s just outstanding for us and I would say he’s one of the best goalkeepers in the country at the moment, the way he’s playing.
“But the way his form is just now is not a surprise to me.
“I’ve worked with him for the last four or five years, I’ve worked with him as a player, I took him to Alloa and worked with him when I was manager there, and I obviously brought him here to Dundee in the summer.
“He just keeps getting better and better, and at 23 he’s just top notch.
“I think if the back four knows he is coming to take things, it’s such a great thing to have.
“The goalkeeper takes a lot of pressure off the back four by coming to catch things and being commanding, and in the last minute Aberdeen had a free kick which he came out to take.
“He’s not scared.”
Hartley was happy with the way his players responded to going behind at Dens on Saturday and praised Stephen McGinn for netting his first goal for the club midway through the second half.
“We changed McGinn’s position a wee bit in terms of putting him further forward, and I thought Kevin Thomson was excellent in the middle of the park,” he added.
“But Stephen got his reward and I thought it was deserved.”
After playing their first game for three weeks at the weekend, Dundee now have another enforced lay-off as the focus turns to Scotland and their friendly with Northern Ireland tomorrow and their Euro 2016 qualifier with Gibraltar on Sunday.
That means that the Dark Blues must now wait until April 4 and a difficult trip to Inverness for their next slice of action, although Hartley is very much resigned to that fact.
“That’s just the way it is,” he concluded.
“We knew that there was an international break coming up, so the players will recover again.
“They’ll get a few days off and recharge the batteries, ready to push for the top six.”
Dundee sit just two points behind the top six places and will fancy their chances of overhauling sixth-placed Hamilton, who Hartley’s men have two games in hand on, before the split.