Dundee showed on Saturday that they can cope just fine should star man Luke McCowan get whisked away.
The Dee were excellent in their victory over Hearts and McCowan played his role in that.
He’d be a big blow to lose before the end of the window, there’s no getting away from that.
However, there are others stepping up right now.
Scott Tiffoney I think is showing a similar kind of improvement to McCowan.
It’s early days in the campaign yet but he looks like he’s taken a big step since last season.
Torrid time
And there are similarities with McCowan and Tiffoney – both signed with no doubt over their skill and ability, it was more about composure and decision-making, maybe even confidence in the Premiership.
A lot of games under the belt and suddenly McCowan started to really shine last season.
It wouldn’t surprise me to see Tiffoney follow suit after a full campaign under his belt at Dundee.
He looks better for the experience picked up last term.
And gave Hearts a torrid time at the back, in particular Gerald Taylor.
The Hearts man was fortunate not to see red for taking out Tiffoney. Especially with the way things are nowadays I am surprised he stayed on the pitch.
But Tiffoney was just one of the Dundee team who caused problems.
‘Just relax, will you!’
That front three were a nightmare for defenders.
You’ve got Tiffoney right on form on one side, Seb Palmer-Houlden runs all day on the other and at times they couldn’t deal with him.
Then there’s Simon Murray in the middle.
He’s just non-stop.
Five minutes left in the 90 and he’s still tearing after defenders, never giving them a moment’s peace.
I’m pretty sure if I was up against him, I’d be yelling at Murray ‘just relax, would you!’
He’d be a nightmare to play against.
Then there’s Curtis Main to come off the bench, a different sort of problem.
With all of those players you have the added bonus that even if they are having a poor day, if the touch is off or whatever, you’ll still get an incredible shift out of every single one of them.
There’s Lyall Cameron as well backing that front three up and he’s had a strong start to the season, too.
Coping without the main man
There’s no wonder teams, especially Hibs, are taking a good look at McCowan and bidding for his services.
And at no point do I think it would be easy to cope without such a crucial and influential player.
What we are seeing, though, is that Dundee are certainly no one-man team.
There is plenty to be happy about in Docherty’s team right now, loads of positives.
They don’t want to lose a key part of that.
However, displays like Saturday only give me more confidence Dundee can cope with players leaving.
The standard has now been set but things look very positive at Dens Park, whoever is in the team.
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