Injury crisis? What injury crisis?
Dundee may have had seven players missing through injury or suspension plus Zak Rudden being left out for other reasons.
But it didn’t affect the way those who were fit went about their business against Queen’s Park on Saturday.
Because they went about their business very well indeed.
They may have had to wait 69 minutes to open the scoring but the 3-0 result was very much deserved.
This was a pivotal match in the season where defeat could have left them eight points behind the leaders. Instead they’ve put themselves two behind with a game in hand.
But what did we learn from the successful afternoon at Dens Park?
Goals
Manager Gary Bowyer’s constant demand is for more ruthlessness from his side.
That was his first comment post-match, despite his team winning 3-0.
But the goals are flowing at Dens Park these days – Dundee have scored 15 in their last five home games now.
Though they don’t possess a goalgetter like Simon Murray or Dipo Akinyemi on 15 goals, they do spread them around.
Had Paul McMullan been more convincing with his penalty he would have moved to the top of the dark blue scoring chart.
However, Ben Williamson did add his own name onto that list which now stretches to 20 names this season.
It was a fine strike with the biggest surprise that he doesn’t score more often.
The same can be said for Alex Jakubiak, whose welcome goal was remarkably his first league strike for Dundee.
He notched four in the League Cup earlier this season before injury once again struck.
This goal, though, was just reward for an impressive run of recent form.
Keep fit and Jakubiak will be like a new signing ahead of deadline day.
Penalty pain
The only real negative for the Dark Blues was yet another failure from 12 yards.
Paul McMullan will want to forget his penalty attempt as quickly as humanly possible. It was that bad.
Calum Ferrie didn’t play along by diving to the side and instead waited to gather the easiest penalty save of his career.
But that’s four in a row now missed by Dundee players after Trevor Carson got in the way of all three in the shootout defeat at St Mirren last weekend.
Zak Rudden, Kwame Thomas and Lyall Cameron are all on the penalty naughty step alongside Paul McMullan.
Who takes the next one we’ll have to wait and see but it’s a habit they’ll want to knock on the head as quickly as possible.
Championship matches are often tight affairs and passing up golden chances like that won’t help in a title run-in.
Zak Rudden
Right now it looks like Zak Rudden has kicked his last ball as a Dundee player as he nears a move to St Johnstone.
Not included in the squad despite not having enough bodies to fill the bench tells a story.
Bowyer said after Saturday’s game that the Dark Blues were looking for a replacement, should Rudden make the short trip down the A90.
This Queen’s Park performance, though, showed Dundee can cope without the former Partick Thistle man.
New boys
This was a new-look Dundee line-up with six changes from Tuesday night’s SPFL Trust Trophy win over Dunfermline.
There were also three new players in the squad, two debutants and Kwame Thomas making his third appearance.
Barry Maguire slotted straight into the midfield alongside Jordan McGhee and looked at home there, playing a part in the key second goal.
He’s a strong player who keeps things flowing and promises to be a good pick-up for Dundee.
Ryan Clampin, meanwhile, was an unknown coming north from Colchester United.
But he made quite the impression with his late cameo, burning through a tired Queen’s Park defence and setting up Ryan Sweeney for goal No 3.
A cameo that bodes well.
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