IS there a more uplifting success story in Scottish football this season than the unlikely renaissance of David Clarkson?
The 29-year-old wrote the latest chapter in the story of his prolific return to Scottish football when he popped up in injury time with the sweetly-taken goal which sent Aberdeen tumbling out of the Scottish Cup.
This was harsh on Aberdeen, most people's second-favourites for this competition outside Celtic, but Clarkson's personal statistics are becoming more startling with each passing week.
Without a club for the first few games of this season after being deemed surplus to requirements at Bristol Rovers, this was his eighth goal for the Dens Park club, and the eighth match in a row in which he has been on the scoresheet.
He was told last week that no player in the history of the club had ever scored in their first seven matches. He now goes into next weekend's league home league match against Inverness knowing another of his by-now customary goals would equal Johnny Bell's club-record achievement of scoring in nine matches in a row in 1920.
Just for good measure, he broke the heart of a manager in Dons manager Derek McInnes, who released him in his past life at Bristol City, and did it in front of visiting luminaries such as Sir Alex Ferguson and Scotland boss Gordon Strachan. Some even went off into the night talking dreamily of a Scotland recall after an international exile of six years.
"If it [a Scotland recall] happens it happens, of course, but for me it is about playing for Dundee, getting the results, and hoping it keeps going," said Clarkson.
"I just need to concentrate on my game, I can't worry about who is here and who is watching. It probably wasn't my best game, I wasn't in the game as much, but I've scored and again I am absolutely delighted."
His club manager Paul Hartley said the 29-year-old was the "top striker in the country at the moment" and insisted there was no danger of him being withdrawn from the action, regardless of the fact Aberdeen were looking the more likely winners of this breathless encounter, which was poised at 1-1 after early goals at both end from Dundee centre-half Thomas Konrad. There was an accidental quality to the winning goal, James McPake reliving his days as a young striker at Livingston when deciding, off-the-cuff, to stay up the park. His header nudged the ball perfectly into the path of Clarkson, who confidently finished beyond Dons keeper Scott Brown.
With Dens Park in a ferment, there was still time for another Dundee hero to present himself.
Paul Hartley swears by Scott Bain, released as a teenager by Aberdeen, and the goalkeeper whom he took from Alloa to Dundee had a stormer here. Niall McGinn found space at the far post, but Bain got a fingertip to his driven volley, the ball deflecting onto the underside of the bar, down on to the line, then clipping the bar again on its way out. It was quite an escape.
"Bain is outstanding and can go to the very top," said Hartley. "He kept us in the game today. We rode our luck at times, but we got through it and you saw what it meant to everyone at the end.
"We're in the next round and it's about time this club had a little bit of luck on our side. We want to win the cup and I think we're capable of doing it."
The visitors had reached the semi-finals of this competition last season, and even in defeat, the healthy travelling support which followed them through afforded them an ovation to mark their efforts.
"There was a lot of brilliant play from us, we brought a proper performance to this game," said McInnes, who hopes to channel the disappointment into January's League Cup semi-final against Dundee United.
"But we paid the ultimate price for a lack of execution. The fact our fans gave us a standing ovation means we're scratching our heads about how we didn't win the game. We will only feel worse than we do now when the final comes around and I've said that to the players. The only time we'll feel better is if we can lift a trophy this season and that has to be our aim now."
The first of many Aberdeen chances came and went within just 10 seconds, Niall McGinn being unable to get on the end of an Adam Rooney cross with the goal gaping.
The opening goal came at the other end, though, Konrad rising well to get on the end of a Gary Harkins delivery before the German lucklessly knocked the ball over his own line after good play down the left from Jonny Hayes and McGinn.
Bain saved well from Rooney and Hayes, and Rooney thrashed into the side netting after more good work from the Irishman. But when it comes to hitting the target these days, no-one can do it quite like Clarkson.
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