Next Saturday 3pm at Dens Park is the biggest match of the season for both Dundee and St Johnstone.
Five points separate the bottom two in the Premiership with a win for the Perth outfit almost certainly condemning the Dark Blues to relegation.
Victory for the home side, meanwhile, would see their Tayside rivals drawn right back into a scrap to avoid bottom spot.
It wasn’t so long ago, though, that the two managers set to go head-to-head in a relegation six-pointer were working hand-in-hand.
Mark McGhee was already part of Gordon Strachan’s Scotland setup before Callum Davidson joined in 2017, while he was still assistant manager at McDiarmid Park.
McGhee has revealed they were still in touch until the 64-year-old took the reins at Dundee.
He was even giving advice to help St Johnstone’s league position before arriving as a direct rival in February.
‘Moral support’
Any thoughts of friendship, however, will be suspended for 90 crucial minutes at Dens Park next weekend.
“The ridiculous thing was that in the weeks before me coming here, I’d been speaking to Callum a fair bit and trying to help him!” McGhee admitted.
“We got on really well when he came into the Scotland set-up with Gordon and I.
“He’s a great young coach, he’s enthusiastic and anyone who knows him knows he’s a great all-round sportsman.
“Callum was a smashing player as well.
“He enjoyed being with us at Scotland and we certainly enjoyed having him as part of the team back then.
“We’ve kept in touch and when St Johnstone were struggling he was on the phone, just looking to tap into my experience over the years.
“I wanted to give him a bit of moral support, I spoke to him about being in that situation myself in the past.
“I think they went three games unbeaten after I spoke to him!
“Obviously the advice stopped as soon as I arrived here.”
‘Believe it’s possible now’
Earlier this week McGhee called on the Dundee support to come out in their numbers next weekend to pile pressure on St Johnstone.
The club have also pulled out the stops to encourage a big home support with ticket offers and senior players on video asking for help from the stands.
And McGhee admits the club have only able to do that because of the manner of their recent two performances.
Though they are still chasing that elusive victory, the Dark Blues showed plenty of guts to come from behind against Aberdeen and then from 2-0 down at Dundee United.
“The last two games have been important for us because we gave the supporters something to believe,” McGhee added.
“They can see and believe it’s possible now.
“Those two games gave them something back because they haven’t had that much this season.
“I think they came away from Tannadice proud of their team and proud of the way the boys got back into the game.
“The St Johnstone game is effectively a cup final a week on Saturday and given the last couple of performances we are entitled to say ‘come on, let’s do this together’.”
