Dunfermline Athletic are undergoing a renaissance and it spells bad news for the other Championship play-off hopefuls.
That renewal is great for both the Championship and for Scottish football.
The Pars have made swift recent progress in catching the early movers and shakers in the race, and with three straight wins in the league they are starting to look like serious contenders for the play-off positions.
Dundee United look unstoppable as automatic promotion candidates but manager Stevie Crawford has grafted hard and his perseverance is paying off as he turns the Fife club around.
When I have watched the Pars they have often been unlucky in receiving scant reward for some fine attacking play but the East End Park players have buckled down and redoubled their efforts.
From a club which had a shaky early season start and looked possibly set for a basement battle, they have grasped the nettle and occupy third spot behind Inverness.
Worryingly for Dundee FC, whom they meet at Dens today, they hold a three-point advantage over James McPake’s side and this game now becomes a classic six-point affair.
The psychological effects for both the losers and the winners of this match shouldn’t be underestimated.
Dunfermline head into this scrap with their tails up, while Dundee’s confidence is fragile, having taken just one point from their last four Championship matches.
There is a generation of fans who will be blissfully ignorant of the fact that the Fife outfit were at one time a serious force in Scottish football.
The Pars are a club with a great European pedigree, having made 46 appearances in European competition, enjoying some notable victories with wins over Everton and Valencia among their glory nights.
It is fanciful to think that those occasions will return to East End Park but Premiership football might.
Kevin Nisbet is in great form with 13 league goals – eight more than Dundee’s leading striker Kane Hemmings.
They have scored five more and conceded five fewer goals than the Dark Blues so this is a game which may well lay down a serious marker for the rest of the season for both teams.
East End Park is a great stadium and there is serious crowd potential if the Pars can be restored to even a fraction of their former glories.
From worrying form a few months ago, suddenly things look a whole lot brighter.
Crawford had a highly-successful career at top level as a player, with over 600 appearances, and he has also acquired extensive experience as assistant boss at Hearts and MK Dons.
Now as manager in his own right he is assembling a side with real potential.
They have seasoned performers in midfield in former Dundee United men Ryan Dow and Paul Paton, along with the energetic Tom Beadling, and the deadly goal threat of Nisbet up front.
Allied to a solid back unit offering a choice of Danny Devine, Lee Ashcroft or Lewis Martin, as a centre back pairing, Dunfermline may well have found the form to mount a serious Championship promotion push.
The Premiership is really where a club of their size belong.
