Dundee goal hero Ryan Conroy has warned the rest of the First Division the Dark Blues are preparing a promotion push.
Sitting rock-bottom of the league little over a week ago, two consecutive wins over first Raith Rovers then Morton have catapulted the Dens men into sixth spot.
They showed resilience in abundance on Saturday to come away from Cappielow with an excellent 2-1 victory and the result could mark a turning point in their campaign.
Conroy, who grabbed the winner on 56 minutes after Gavin Rae had equalised Andy’s Jackson early opener for the home side, certainly believes they are not out of the promotion race despite being 11 points behind leaders Ross County.
”We fully believe that we are still in with a chance,” said Conroy. ”We know we are a good enough team but we have not had the best of starts to the season.
”Now, though, we are starting to gel a bit more. That has been evident over the last few weeks.
”To go to Cappielow and win could be a significant result for us. We got a home win over Raith the previous week so there is a wee bit of momentum now. Hopefully, we can kick on because it only takes one team to string a few results together in order to start worrying the sides above them.
”We are still miles behind the leaders but if we knuckle down then we can continue heading in the right direction.”
Conroy should have been on the scoresheet after just four minutes, missing an absolute sitter when he headed over from smack-bang in front of goal.
Former St Johnstone frontman Jackson then kicked off a long period of Morton domination by putting Allan Moore’s men ahead just a minute later, stabbing the ball over the line after a goalmouth stramash.
Rae added a touch of class to a match that suffered too much from long-ball tactics at times, ghosting in from midfield to deftly steer his shot past keeper Dominic Cervi as the interval loomed.
Conroy then capped a much-improved second-half display by Dundee when he volleyed a pinpoint cross from substitute Jake Hyde into the net.
He revealed that the first thought that came into his head was that he had managed to make up for that horror header.
”It was a great ball from Jake absolutely inch-perfect and I caught it well,” said Conroy, who was also the matchwinner the previous weekend against Rovers.
”I think the big man was a bit annoyed that I didn’t celebrate with him but he went off one way and I ended up on the other side of the park.
”He was suffering a bit from concussion at the end there but he still remembered setting up my goal!
”What I was thinking was that I had missed a great chance early on. It had been in my head for the whole match.
”I am not the greatest in the air but the problem was that I caught it too well and it flew over. Had I managed to glance the ball either side of the keeper it would have been a goal.
”However, I knew that I would get another chance and that I had to take it, so it was a relief when that’s exactly what happened. It is always nice to make up for a miss.”
Manager Barry Smith was quick to acknowledge the quality of both Dundee goals.
”It was a great run from Jake to set up the winner and a really good finish from Ryan,” he said. ”We have been going on at our midfielders to time their runs into the box better and that certainly worked for us.
”Gavin and Ryan both got up to support the strikers and we got our reward with two excellent goals.”
Smith gave his players a collective pat on the back for being as dogged as they were, withstanding some intense Morton pressure both in the first half and in the closing stages.
”To come back from being 1-0 down at a tough place like this shows my players have the right attitude and are willing to keep working when things are not going well for them,” added Smith.
”So I am delighted with the three points because I don’t think we played as well as we can.”