Dundee boss Tony Docherty revealed he had been teasing match-winner Luke McCowan about his lack of goals prior to the 1-0 cinch Premiership win over Livingston at Dens Park.
The 25-year-old struck a superb second-half free-kick to clinch all three points and move the Dark Blues up to sixth in the table.
It was McCowan’s second goal of the season – with Docherty pointing out before the game that he had netted fewer than centre-half skipper Joe Shaughnessy.
Docherty said: “We are a newly-promoted team and nobody can expect a home game against Livingston to be easy.
“It’s a tough, tough game and you have to do so many things right.
“I think what defined the match was a moment of quality from Luke McCowan.
“I’m delighted for him. I’m always banging on to him to get more goals and assists – I was teasing him the other day saying Joe Shaughnessy has more goals than him. Now he’s level with Joe!
“I’m really pleased for the team.
“This squad’s mentality is fantastic and has been from day one.
“The clean sheets we are keeping give you such a platform to win games.”
The defeat at Dens was the second time Livingston had lost to Dundee in the space of eight days.
However, this time round, boss David Martindale insisted he could not be angry with his players.
He said: “A moment of brilliance from Luke McCowan changed the dynamic of the game.
“We had a fantastic chance with Joel Nouble and he’s got to do better with it.
“It’s a part of his game where he’s got to become more ruthless. He’s got to hit the target.
“I thought we shaded the first half but should have taken more care in the final third. We could have done better.
“In the second half, I thought we were the better team but Dundee defended their box well.
“I feel for the players. I was angry when we lost to Dundee last week but I can’t have any anger with the players today.”
Livi have now lost four games in a row and remain ninth with Martindale admitting his side are in a dogfight to stay up.
He said: “I think we’ll be in a relegation battle up to matchday 33 – or even matchday 38.
“I’ve been at Livingston for ten years and I think I’ve been in a relegation battle for nine.
“Have we over-achieved? I think we have.
“Do I think we’ve got more than enough to get out of this? Of course we have.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here