Dundee frontman Danny Mullen isn’t worried about competition from international strikers at Dens Park – in fact, he relishes it.
The 26-year-old has sat out a large part of the season so far through injury.
While on the sidelines, the Dark Blues added one of the Premiership’s top goal-getters in Leigh Griffiths on loan from Celtic.
Cillian Sheridan and Alex Jakubiak may be on the long-term injury list but that still means Mullen is face-to-face with Griffiths and Jason Cummings for the striker spot.
Those last two have 24 Scotland caps between them and 349 club goals to their names.
Mullen, meanwhile, has a more modest tally of 65 goals from his 10 seasons as a senior pro.
But he was chosen ahead of Cummings and Griffiths to replace Sheridan against St Mirren with the other two left on the bench.
And then had the starting berth against Celtic last Sunday, scoring in the first-half to keep his side in the game.
‘Chance to prove myself’
🗣 "Dundee are back in the game!"
McMullan lifts a cross from the left and Mullen heads past Hart before Juranovic and Sweeney wrestle over the ball in the net and both pick up yellow cards 😮
📺 Watch live on Sky Sports Football
📲 Live blog 👉 https://t.co/yMc9koZOiu pic.twitter.com/p8mNQ4FxIw— Sky Sports Scotland (@ScotlandSky) November 7, 2021
Despite the serious competition in that position, Mullen insists it’s a challenge he will meet head on.
“I relish the chance to go and prove myself,” he said.
“It is a team game and you push each other each day in training.
“Hopefully, I can fit in alongside Leigh and when he’s not doing well to push him to do better.
“He got his first goal and will be wanting to push on from there.
“I’m happy as long as the boys are doing well and I’m playing.
“Obviously I need to work hard to get in the team. When I get a chance, I need to take it.
“We have good players all through the squad from the goalkeepers to the strikers.
“There is quality in the team, we just need a bit of luck to get going.”
‘We went on runs last season’
He added: “When I first came to the club the manager had put a good squad together.
“There were winners in that team and we have built on it since.
“We didn’t get off to the start we wanted to this season but, hopefully, we can build confidence.
“We went on runs last season so, hopefully, we can do that again this season.”
