Dundee striker Greg Stewart didn’t envisage Hamilton Accies getting promotion last season, let alone top the Premiership once they got there.
Their stunning rise from play-off outsiders to becoming the leading team in the country with just one game left in the first quarter of the season, has caught the Dark Blues frontman by surprise.
“I didn’t think they were going to go up in the play-offs last season,” he admitted.
“But fair play to them, with a lot of young players they did brilliantly to get up and have just kicked on this season.
“They can do both sides of the game. They can press and they can play as well, with some good footballers in their team as well.”
Stewart had a good record against Accies as a Cowdenbeath player last term, and Dundee were unbeaten in their four clashes with their promotion rivals.
And it goes without saying that he hopes both are good omens for today.
“The boys have been saying that’s it’s much the same team they have from last season when they didn’t manage to beat us,” he pointed out.
“So hopefully that will be playing in their heads a bit and we can beat them. It could be in their minds so we’ll see what happens.”
Stewart added: “We (Cowdenbeath) beat them 4-3 away from home last season. And we drew with them at home as well.
“So we took a few points off them last season, and I scored a few against them as well. You could say I enjoyed my fair share of success. I think I scored three against them in total.”
Stewart and David Clarkson formed a deadly partnership at Motherwell last week, with both men getting a goal and the team securing a victory.
The 24-year-old said: “It was very satisfying to get the win and the goal against Motherwell last week. But mainly it was just to get back on track after four defeats in a row.
“You always want to get a victory to get things going again. Now it makes us ready for this game against Hamilton, who are flying.
“I played with him (Clarkson) for the first time as a partnership against Aberdeen.
“I enjoy playing alongside against him. We seemed to click a wee bit more against Motherwell than we did against Aberdeen.”
Even though Dundee’s start to the league campaign has been a more than satisfactory one, there is still a big box needing ticked.
“We haven’t won at home this season in the league,” he said. “And we want to change that.
“You want to win every home game, and we were unlucky not to do it against Celtic earlier in the season.”
A four-game losing run could have affected belief in the dressing room. But it didn’t, Stewart insisted.
“Out of two of those four games which we lost, we actually played quite well,” he said.
“We were unlucky not to win. In saying that, in the league game against Dundee United and away to Ross County we just weren’t at it at all.
“We weren’t good enough but the confidence didn’t go. We still felt we would beat Motherwell despite those four losses.”
Stewart has got more game-time early in the season than some would have predicted, given his lack of top flight experience.
And the man himself was prepared for a longer bedding-in period at Dens.
He said: “When I first came here, you think to yourself are you going to play that much?
“It’s about making that step up from part-time football. I feel as though I’m learning all the time.
“It’s a great chance which I want to take with both hands. I’m excited about the future and think there can be good times ahead.”
James McPake returns to the squad and Kevin Thomson may start. Kyle Letheren is out for a couple of months so Scott Bain will continue in goals.
Meanwhile, Grant Gillespie insists he is in no hurry to quit Hamilton, despite blurting out live on television he was looking for a move.
The 23-year-old midfielder joined team-mate Ali Crawford in penning a new three-and-half-year deal with the Premiership’s surprise leaders.
The contracts will keep the pair at New Douglas Park until May 2018 and out of reach from interested clubs for the time being.
But Gillespie had to backtrack after telling Sky Sports News he was “hoping to get a move” at the end of the season.
He said: “I’m in no hurry to move. I said on TV that I was looking for a move but that was a slip of the tongue.
“My mind went blank and I didn’t know what to say. What came out I instantly regretted. I’m delighted to be here for the next three years.”