Dundee may be sitting third-bottom but I feel the greater pressure is on Hearts ahead of their Friday night clash.
This is a great game for the Dark Blues to have on the back of a narrow defeat to Celtic last weekend.
Let’s be clear, I feel it is ridiculously early to criticise or judge Ian Cathro.
He needs to be given substantially more time than two games in which to settle into the job and prove he has what it takes to manage at Premiership level.
Nevertheless, with the Jam Tarts having lost at Rangers and then only drawn at home to Partick Thistle in his two games as boss, their fans will be desperate to get the three points against Dundee.
So there is pressure on Cathro and his players.
Of course, Paul Hartley’s team badly need the win as well.
It doesn’t matter how they achieve it, either.
The possession percentage could be 60-40 or even 70-30 in Hearts’ favour but all that matters is they get three points that would push them right up the table.
What I would really like to see happen is striker Faissal El Bakhtaoui get on the scoresheet.
OK, he missed a great chance against Celtic but he will score plenty of other opportunities when he gets them.
The good thing for him is that everyone knows about the goals he scored at Dunfermline and, given time, he will be banging them in for Dundee too.
Talking about my other former club, Celtic opened up a 14-point gap with a game in hand on Rangers by beating Partick Thistle the other night.
Rather than see the points gap as embarrassing for the league, I view it as a reward for amazing consistency.
I predicted when I first started doing this column that Brendan Rodgers would be like a breath of fresh air for Scottish football and that’s how it’s turned out.
The bad news for the other teams is that Celtic will only get better under him.
Rodgers is already making plans to boost his squad in January and I can honestly see them winning the title by more than 20 points this season.
~ I would like to offer my congratulations to Dundee United boss Ray McKinnon on his manager of the month award.
You don’t have to be a United fan or watch their games to recognise that there has been real improvement at Tannadice under his leadership so well done!
~ Now that Joey Barton has returned to Burnley, hopefully we can bring the media circus to an end.
He came up to Rangers thinking he would be the big shot but I think Celtic skipper Scott Brown sent him back down the road with his tail between his legs.
