FIRST it was Hearts and a 15-point deduction. Then it was Kevin Cuthbert, sending Hibernian down with them. The first rule of Scottish football is that it doesn't exactly take a hurricane to send the country's biggest clubs into a tailspin.
It happened to Falkirk – now consigned to a fourth straight season in League One – and it could well happen again to Dunfermline, readying themselves for a manic, fraught battle to avoid the Championship play offs. And while it would take a collapse of Biblical proportions for it to happen to either Aberdeen or Hibs, the very idea of it doesn't exactly sound like something passed down on some tablets from Mount Sinai.
Consigned to the bottom six on Saturday, the form book isn't pretty reading for Jim Goodwin or Shaun Maloney, with just one win a piece in the last five games and confidence about as low as it possibly can be.
But while they go off to lick their wounds during the next fortnight – Hibs' Scottish Cup semi-final aside – and wonder what might have been this season, others smell opportunity.
"Everyone is struggling," said Dundee skipper Charlie Adam, whose team currently occupy bottom spot in the Premiership. "Confidence is low for everybody and you have to pick points up. Big clubs down there might feel sorry for themselves and think they shouldn't be down there, but they are. We have to use that to our advantage."
If Dundee are going to take advantage of the struggles of the 'big clubs', they'll have to show the kind of spirit they did during their own thrilling derby draw on Saturday. Having gone 2-0 down at Tannadice – with Nicky Clark and Charlie Mulgrew sending United on their way – it would have been so easy for the Dee to crumble, but they did exactly the opposite.
With Adam showing flashes of the talent he's always had, they scored two quick goals to wrestle a point from the home of their rivals. At full time, the chants from the blue half of the city were loud and proud; suddenly, Dundee believe again.
"Since I have been here, the fans have been brilliant and I've always had the connection with the club," Adam, 36, said. "Performances have had to pick up, but we've now bounced back twice in the last couple of weeks. It shows the character is there and we're going to need that in the next five games."
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