Lyall Cameron has such high standards for his own performances that he says he’s “underachieved” this season.
That’s despite playing a starring role in Dundee’s top-six charge.
The 21-year-old is in his first-ever campaign at Premiership level, having only broken into the Dark Blues first team last season.
After Saturday’s superb long-range finish, the Scotland U/21 man is on five goals in the top flight.
However, he’s got his sights set on more between now and the end of the campaign.
Asked if he had a personal target this term, Cameron responded: “Just keep scoring, keep playing well and keep doing better.
“Like any player, I want to keep getting more.
“I’m happy with my goal but I just wish I could have added another and another.
“I just like scoring goals and I’ve not done it enough this year.
“I feel like I’ve underachieved almost – I feel like I can still do more.
“I’m confident in my ability so I feel like I can still give a lot more to the team and improve.”
‘Oh, that could be in…’
Cameron opened the scoring in Dundee’s 2-1 win at St Johnstone on Saturday with a remarkable goal.
With Saints goalie Dimitar Mitov way out of his goal and the ball laid off to him by Amadou Bakayoko, the youngster made no mistake from 45 yards.
“It just fell to me, it was one of those where you don’t have time to think about it. It was just natural,” Cameron explained.
“I hit and I thought ‘oh, that could be in’ – thankfully it just dipped at the last second.
“I’m comfortable in my ability and I believe I can do that. For a moment, I thought it was going over but I was glad to see it go in.
“I’ve never scored from that far out so I’m happy.”
Raging
He’s also happy with referee Iain Snedden.
The official appeared ready to stop the game after Mitov handled outside his area before Bakayoko laid the ball off.
But Cameron is pleased Snedden took a beat before blowing.
“One of the coaches told me the referee had the whistle in his mouth to stop the game so it was actually a really good advantage from the referee,” Cameron added.
“I was delighted with that because I would have been raging if he’d blown before I hit it!
“It was a really good advantage, fair play to him.”
How big would top six be?
Victory puts Dundee into the driving seat in the chase for the Premiership’s top six.
It’s now a straight shootout between them and Hibs with just three matches to go until the split.
And Cameron admits only one result would have done for the Dee in Perth.
“It wasn’t a pretty game at all but we came away with three points,” he added.
“We showed really good character because going to McDiarmid Park it is not an easy game.
“It was a must-win for us, to be honest.
“Top six would be massive for the club.
“The expectation when we came up would have been to go straight back down so we’ve proved the doubters wrong.
“We just need to try now to get into that top six.
“It would be a massive achievement.”
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