Dundee will be good for Seny Dieng, the loan goalkeeper believes.
And on the evidence of Saturday’s debut performance against Queen of the South, Seny Dieng will be good for Dundee.
The QPR man, who was drafted in after Jack Hamilton needed surgery on a finger, gave as composed a display as he and manager Jim McIntyre could have hoped for.
And according to the 24-year-old, he will only get even better.
“I was pleased with my own performance,” said Dieng. “It was good to be able to help the team with those saves in my first game for the club.
“It’s important for a goalkeeper to make a good start at a new club.
“This is the start of what is to come – you can always do better.
“I thought we adjusted well to all of us playing together as a defence for the first time. We sorted things out during the game when we needed to.”
A diving save to keep out a Stephen Dobbie first half header and a Schmeichel-esque block when Josh Todd was through on goal on the hour mark were the obvious highlights, but his positioning and composure under the high ball also stood out.
The fact that Dieng was the busier of the two keepers in the 1-1 draw with Queens suggests that securing a replay was an acceptable outcome from an underwhelming afternoon for the hosts.
“We are happy to still be in the competition, of course,” he said.
“Obviously we wanted to win today but it will now have to go to a replay, and we’ll look to get through to the next round that way.
“Queen of the South played well but we’re confident that we can go through.”
Dieng has done his homework on Dundee and the Scottish game, with a bit of help from an ex-Rangers player.
“It was about mid-December when I heard that this move might happen so I’ve been watching as much of Scottish football as I can since then,” he explained.
“Now that I’ve played here, I can see that it is very similar to English football.
“I’d spoken to one of my team-mates at QPR before I came here – Sean Goss, who was at Rangers.
“He told me that the standard of the Scottish Premiership was high and that this would be a good move for me.
“He said that it would be good for my development up here.
“The aim is to play a lot of games and to help the club stay in the league.
“That is obviously the most important thing for the club now this season – and we are already focused on Wednesday.”
Dobbie deservedly put Queens in front before Jesse Curran equalised from just inside the box in the dying moments of the first half. From that moment, the draw always looked the likeliest outcome.
McIntyre reflected: “I thought Queen of the South were better than us. You have to credit them. They were right up for the game and played very well. Let’s not forget they’re on a brilliant run of form.
“We didn’t start the game well. These cup games are always difficult and so it proved again. You just need to look at some of the results elsewhere.
“There were a few shocks and I’m just glad we’re still in the cup and we’ve got a chance to rectify the performance because it was short of what we were looking for.
“Jesse’s goal was our first moment of quality. It was very frustrating.”
Queens boss Gary Naysmith said: “We’re still in the competition but I thought we should have won.
“Dundee’s only shot on target was their goal and I think that statistic on its own tells you how well we played. The lads were excellent.
“We were down to the bare bones – 11 senior players and kids on the bench.
“Jim will probably be saying to his team that they were second best but they’re still in the cup. We know it will be another difficult game in the replay.”
It was Dobbie’s 33rd goal of the season and Naysmith, as ever, feels lucky to have such a striking talent in his team.
“He enjoys showing people that he can still play at this level,” he said. “I think all the teams in the bottom half of the Premiership would take Stephen if he was available. He was good today but we didn’t have a failure.”
