Osman Sow is starting to believe in himself again says Dundee manager James McPake after the striker bagged a hat-trick in a 3-1 win at Queen of the South.
The Swede netted his first goal for the Dark Blues against Dunfermline the week previous and quickly moved to the top of the club’s league scoring chart with the treble that saw off the Doonhamers.
Sow matched Charlie Adam’s four Championship strikes after getting on the end of the midfielder’s corner kick delivery on 13 minutes before rolling in a second eight minutes later and tapping in a third after half-time at Palmerston.
The striker signed in October after recovering from an Achilles injury that ended his time at Dundee United.
And his manager was delighted with his frontman’s “unplayable” performance.
McPake said: “When we brought Osman in he hoped he could get back to a level but now I think he’s believing he can get to the level of the Osman Sow at Hearts and after.
“Injuries take time to get back from but we’ve seen over a consistent period now in training he’s getting to a level where he is unplayable.
“He showed that on Saturday with three great goals.
“I’m delighted for him because he’s worked ever so hard and has had a long time out of the game.
“I’m over the moon for him.”
Dundee moved up to fourth in the Championship table with the victory and McPake was pleased to see his side put the concession of a three-goal lead at home to Dunfermline behind them quickly.
“It was a massive three points for us,” he said.
“It was important after last week we got a performance and we thoroughly deserved to win the game.
“We were really comfortable in what were really tough conditions at a difficult place to come.
“We learned the lesson from Dunfermline and we’ve done a lot of work.
“We knew the game was won, we had too much character and too much resilience on that pitch.
“We were far superior for them to get back into the game.”
Queens stay rooted to the foot of the table and manager Allan Johnston was disappointed with the goals conceded by his struggling side.
“When you look at the game, I don’t think there was much in it but we lost three goals,” he said.
“I’m getting sick of saying the same thing. Our defending is poor.
“The first goal from a corner was a free header – we don’t get chances like that.
“The second was a poor backpass and the third was a long throw.
“It’s not like Dundee cut us open with a bit of great play or outplayed us but they did the basics better than we did.
“We are losing really cheap goals and you can’t afford that.”