Saturday’s win over Raith Rovers showed the key ability from Dundee that can see them return to the Premiership at the first time of asking.
Having a regular goalscorer like Zach Robinson is important, as is the supporting cast setting him up at the moment.
All season, the Dark Blues have been creating chances.
And all season manager Gary Bowyer has moaned about them not taking enough of them.
But those aren’t my big takeaway from the 2-0 success against Ian Murray’s side.
I think we’ve seen enough of Bowyer’s boys to know they will create and usually score – only two teams have kept them out this term, Rangers and Morton twice.
It’s great to see the Dark Blues have a proper goalscorer lead the line, it feels like it’s been a long time since that was the case.
And Robinson was superb against Rovers – their backline will be pleased not to have to face him again this weekend.
But, again, that’s not the key ability I’m talking about.
More important
What impressed me most was the ‘nil’ part of the 2-0 scoreline.
Keeping the other buggers out!
Dundee, to be fair, have been pretty good at that throughout the season.
But never for an extended period.
Up until the Cove Rangers defeat it was a case of the Dark Blues getting a clean sheet or conceding three goals. Nothing in between.
Feels like they might be past that now.
And clean sheets, or at least a solid defence, will be the difference between winning the division or dropping into the play-offs.
That’s more important than having a top scorer into double figures and beyond.
Because if he scores twice but the team concede three, what’s the point?
Don’t ship soft goals and it only takes one chance at the other end to win a game.
Confident Raith
Saturday’s opponents Raith had scored 11 times in their last six games, hitting three in three of those matches.
That includes their previous two against Partick Thistle and Hamilton.
So they were coming to Dens Park with confidence.
And they started the game with that confidence as the Dark Blues got to grip with a new system.
Rovers passed the ball around well and had the early efforts on goal.
The most important part of that, however, was that despite Dundee not starting particularly well they restricted their opponents to shots from 20 yards.
And as the game wore on, the Dee grew into the game, took control of the ball and got their goals.
But there was still some defending to do with a flurry of corners late on and pressure to deal with.
At no point, however, did they look like conceding and goalie Ian Lawlor didn’t really have a save of note to make.
Keep that up and nobody else will be able to keep up with Dundee in the race for the Championship title.
Conversation