Dundee boss John Brown believes playmaker Gary Harkins could have a huge part to play in boosting his side’s survival hopes in the run-in.
The Dark Blues sit 13 points adrift at the foot of the SPL and will realistically have to win all five of their remaining fixtures to even stand a chance of avoiding the drop.
However, Brown has confidence that key men like Harkins will be able to rise to the challenge over the coming games highlighting the midfielder’s recent influence against Kilmarnock as proof of that.
Harkins netted twice against his old club at Rugby Park and not only kept Dundee’s survival bid alive but also put one over on former boss Kenny Shiels in the process.
“Gary had a point to prove, and although he came out saying it wasn’t a big thing, I think he wanted to prove a point and he did that,” he said.
“He’s got great ability, and if you give him the ball around about that final third he can take it and hold it up. At times he might hold it up too long, but that’s what you get with him.
“You let him go and express himself and he scored two fantastic goals actually. They were two totally different types of goals.
“The second one was great work by Lewis Toshney, great delivery and any striker your Hoopers and all these guys would have been proud of that finish.”
But while Harkins will no doubt be a key figure in the fight against relegation, Brown firmly believes his whole team have risen to the challenge in recent weeks.
“Everybody was building up about Kilmarnock getting into the top six, but our boys have shown a steely determination about them,” he said.
“Although Gary Harkins got a lot of the plaudits, our centre to the middle of the park the five in there put in a great shift.
“It stopped Kilmarnock passing through us and they played a lot of long balls that went through to the goalkeeper or went out for a goal kick. Everybody did their job.
“Gary got the plaudits for the goals, but it was a great team effort.”