Theirs was not the most obvious of partnerships but it was a regular source of goals during his first spell at Dundee United.
And in Thomas Mikkelsen, full-back Paul Dixon reckons he might just have found his new Jon Daly.
In the heady seasons either side of the Tangerines’ 2010 Scottish Cup win, Dixon’s whipped-in crosses from the left were often sent into the back of the net by cult hero Daly.
And the Irishman was never slow to highlight the contribution the defender made to his goals tally.
So Saturday night at Tannadice was something of a happy blast from the past as his deliveries from the left flank reached Mikkelsen and led to the opening two goals.
The opener, just before half-time was headed home by the big Dane for his first United goal.
“The second, three minutes into the second period, saw Mikkelsen manage to force the ball back for Tony Andreu to finish perfectly.
And Dixon admits it was like old times as he saw the big centre-forward get on the end of his balls into the middle.
“Looking at the two of them you would never mistake Thomas for Jon but they are both big and strong in the air and that’s perfect for me,” he said.
“And when the ball gets played out wide, Thomas just wants to get into the box the way Jon did.
“That’s great for me and the manager has told Thomas when I get forward and get on the ball, that’s where I’m going to put it, so he should be getting in there.
“It worked against Raith and I thought his two goals were well taken. I crossed for the first one and he did very well.
“He had to take a step and get across the defender and he did it.
“For his second Simon Murray put in a great cross but he still had a lot to do and sent a very good header back into the corner of the net.
“He also did well for Tony’s goal, the way he got to my cross and got the ball back to him.”
Dixon is well aware it’s early days and there’s a long way to go before the pair can claim to have the same almost telepathic understanding he and Daly had.
But as United try to claw back Hibs at the top of the Championship, it’s a promising start. Likewise, he believes after five games without a win, the return to form against Raith was a step in the right direction.
“To be fair I thought we played well at Dunfermline last week and should have won. It gave us something to build on and we did that on Saturday.
“We’ve closed the gap on Hibs to six points but, to be honest, we weren’t thinking about what they were doing going into the game.
“We knew Hibs had gone behind to Ayr but, when we went out to warm up, their game was still going on.
“We didn’t know they’d equalised and we didn’t know the final score until after we’d finished.
“That’s the way it should be because we just have to concentrate on ourselves and winning games.”
Glad as he is United’s barren spell has ended, Dixon says at no time did it change their attitude towards the campaign.
“It was really disappointing not winning for a while and you never enjoy a run like that but they happen in football.
“But we didn’t get carried away when things were going well before the turn of the year and we didn’t panic during January.
“We just kept working hard to put things right and we’ll keep working hard to the end of the season and see where it takes us.”
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