Dundee boss Barry Smith has revealed that the club have started negotiations in the hope of extending on-loan Hartlepool striker Colin Nish’s stay at Dens.
The big striker has become a key component of Smith’s side since his arrival in August and was again a constant thorn in the side of the opposition on Saturday, helping the Dark Blues beat his former club Hibs 3-1.
Nish moved to Dens in search of regular first-team football after falling out of favour with former Hartlepool manager Neale Cooper.
However, John Hughes took over in the Victoria Park hotseat last week and Dundee are hoping he will agree to let Nish stay beyond January.
Smith said: ”We’ve made contact with Hartlepool about Colin. We want to keep him and he wants to be here, which is obviously important.
”We would like him to stay longer as he’s been doing well but we’ll just need to wait and see. John Hughes has only been in the job for a matter of days down there so we have to wait for them to get back to us now.”
There were outstanding individual performances from several Dundee players on Saturday as they secured a victory that closed the gap on second bottom St Mirren to just one point and extended their recent unbeaten run to three games.
However, rather than single out players for praise, Smith was keen to stress that the success was due to what his side are doing collectively.
Smith said: ”It’s a massive team effort. Each and every one of them are putting their bodies where it hurts for the sake of the team. It’s not about individuals and it never has been.
”One of the things (Hibs boss) Pat Fenlon commented on after the game was how hard the lads worked for each other. We have to keep up those high commitment levels because we know you don’t get anything in the SPL unless you work your socks off.”