Tony Docherty will have set his side one simple challenge for the final week of the season – get points on the board.
Dundee have done brilliantly to finish in the top six in their first season back in the Premiership.
Memories are short, however, and people very quickly forget.
“You are only as good as your last performance,” is a cliche that rings true because that’s how minds work.
Dundee don’t want to end the season with five straight defeats.
That would take the shine off what has been a brilliant season.
It’s far from easy, though.
Games away to Rangers and then Kilmarnock at home aren’t straightforward by any means.
But this is the top six – this is where you face the best teams in the crucial part of the campaign.
Dundee have just fallen a bit short on that front in recent weeks.
The last few results have shown there is a bit of work to do for Docherty this summer if the Dark Blues want to repeat their top-six finish.
They have shown this season that on their day they can compete with the better teams.
But then there’s games like Hearts on Saturday where they’ve played quite well but don’t have the quality to take their chances and then find themselves opened up at the other end.
It’s clear they need to add a bit more quality to kick on next term.
Strength in depth is an issue too.
We’ve seen in these post-split games that other sides with bigger budgets and more settled squads can handle these end-of-season matches better.
Some of that has been bad luck.
You look at Dundee’s second half team at Tynecastle and they were missing Joe Shaughnessy, Owen Beck, Ricki Lamie and Jordan McGhee.
They’re missing a lot of experience there and a lot of quality as well.
Beck gives great ability going forward but he was strong defensively as well.
And I think Shaughnessy’s absence has been keenly felt in the last few games.
I think it would be fair to say it looked like he needed the end of the season to come quickly at certain stages. Mainly because of the amount of games he had played.
But we’re seeing how important an influence he is on this team.
Losing that as well as experienced guys like Lamie and McGhee are tough to deal with for any side.
Tonight at Rangers will be difficult but Dundee showed in their last meeting they can get something from the game.
Then Kilmarnock at the weekend at home is a game they can look to get a win to finish things off on a high.
Killie have had a tremendous season but Dundee have shown they can compete with them this season.
A good performance at Ibrox tonight and a result against Killie at the weekend would satisfy Docherty I think. That would finish off a fine season.
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