After securing top-six football, Dundee have set their sights on their next target: a fifth-placed finish.
It would be a remarkable achievement for a newly promoted side that had just three players contracted last summer and took the chance on a rookie manager, though one who was a vastly-experienced coach.
Tony Docherty stood stubbornly to his first goal of ensuring survival in the Premiership until recently before turning his attention to the top six.
Two birds were killed with one stone with the draw at Aberdeen and the subsequent point versus Rangers moved them to within two points of St Mirren in fifth.
If Dundee can leapfrog the Buddies by the end of the season, they will enter the Uefa Conference League for the second qualifying round.
It would be their first sojourn into Europe since the 2003 UEFA Cup.
Key Conference League dates
With Rangers and Celtic set to finish in the top two places and contest the Scottish Cup Final, it means that whoever finishes in third will now go into the Europa League play-off round.
That means an extra European slot opens up in the Premiership.
Fourth place will now enter the Europa League at the second qualifying round and fifth place at the equivalent stage of the Conference League.
The first leg of the Conference League second qualifying round will take place on July 25 and the return fixture will be held on August 1.
The draw for that round is on June 19.
It will be seeded at that stage using the UEFA club coefficient UEFA club coefficient. Last season Hibs were seeded and drew Andorra side Inter Club d’Escaldes.
New Conference League format
After that, there are two more rounds before the the Conference League proper starts on October 3 with a new format.
At the moment, it looks like Hearts will finish third and Kilmarnock are favourites to take fourth position.
Dundee and St Mirren will kick off their top-six fixtures by each hosting one side of the Old Firm before a crunch encounter between the sides a week on Saturday.
After that, there will be nine points available to decide the final standings and who will be digging out their passports.
Up to and including this season, the Conference League proper saw qualified sides split into small groups in a familiar format for European football.
From the 2024/25 season, the revamped tournament will instead consist of a single 36-team league stage. Each team will play three home matches and three away against six different opponents.
Possible opponents
A few of the northern European nations, who tend to play a summer football calendar, have already put forward their entrants for next season’s Conference League.
Possible opponents for whichever Scottish side finishes fifth include St Patrick’s Athletic from the League of Ireland, as well as Brann and Tromso of Norway.
Familiar foes of Aberdeen, Swedish outfit Hacken, have also qualified for next season’s competition.
Hacken were knocked out of the Conference League qualifying by Aberdeen over two legs in 2021 before the Swedish side took their revenge earlier this season in Europa League qualifying.
There are also due to be teams from the top flights in Belgium, Portugal and Turkey entering at that stage.
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