It felt like it was only a matter of time until Louis Appere found his feet in the top flight given his exploits as Dundee United romped to the Championship title last season.
The young attacker, so impressive as he burst onto the scene with six goals in 33 appearances last term, has found the adjustment to Premiership football tricky.
It was probably to be expected in only his second full senior campaign and, after starting the Tangerines’ last two matches, it feels like the 21-year-old is ready to announce himself on the big stage.
Appere played a pivotal role in helping the Terrors to a share of the spoils up at Aberdeen a fortnight ago and on Tuesday night when St Johnstone came to Tannadice.
Dundee United youngster Louis Appere aiming to ‘solidify’ starting spot after 90 minutes at Aberdeen
The big forward used all of his 6ft 3in frame to get his side up the park and support star man Lawrence Shankland, himself rediscovering his best form.
Appere has spoken of working on his hold-up play and how manager Micky Mellon and the United coaching staff are trying to mould the versatile striker into a target man.
It appears the Fifer is a quick learner, starting off with slow baby steps at Pittodrie.
Appere finds his feet in Dandies clash
Making his first United appearance since the 2-0 loss at Livingston in early December, Appere started and got 90 minutes under his belt for only the third time this season.
He seized the opportunity handed to him courtesy of his hard work and an injury to Marc McNulty, allowing Shankland to have one of his best games of the campaign as the Terrors earned a 0-0 draw.
Appere was the furthest man up the pitch for United all afternoon, with marksman Shankland staying extremely close to him.
The pair linked up six times in total, with Appere also winning three fouls for his team.
He would play through the middle or come off either flank as Arabs grew so accustomed to watching last year in the second tier and, ultimately, picked up a lot of confidence from the match.
Youngster shines in Saints share of the spoils
Appere would take that into the rearranged midweek visit of Saints to the City of Discovery and have, undoubtedly, his best performance of the season, despite coming off after 65 minutes.
He finished off a lovely move by Shankland and Nicky Clark to give United the lead on nine minutes with a sharp penalty box strike.
The youngster would turn provider for the rest of the encounter, making two key passes and creating two chances for his side, one an assist for Shankland’s audacious 53-yard chip of Zander Clark to level the game up at 2-2.
Again, Appere played highest up the pitch with Shanks in close proximity, winning a foul for his side and controlling things for the Tangerines in the opposition half.
He led United for passing accuracy in the Perth men’s half with 77.8%, finding Shankland four times, before being replaced by McNulty as they pressed for a winner.
It didn’t come for United but what Arabs can now be assured of is they have, finally, seen Louis Appere’s coming of age at this level.