Darren O'Dea called Kenny Miller to find the secret to his golden era – and knew precisely then he was destined to carry on hitting the heights despite his advancing years.

Miller has been on fire for Dundee in recent weeks and continued his purple patch by netting again in the dying minutes of Saturday's 3-1 Premiership defeat away to Kilmarnock.

The former Scotland star turns 39 next week but is showing no signs of slowing down and promises to be a key man in Jim McIntyre's side's quest for top-flight survival in the weeks ahead.

Former Celtic team-mate O'Dea knows Miller better than anybody at Dens Park, and has revealed how his unique insight into how he retains his razor-sharp instincts before they joined forces again on Tayside convinced him he was in no hurry to take his foot off the gas.

O'Dea, who's hoping Miller can work his magic at Aberdeen tonight, said: "It's hard to put your finger on it because he doesn't do anything out of the ordinary. "He trains like a 25-year-old or a 30-year-old.

"I rang Kenny about 18 months ago to ask him a few things. I was just quizzing him because I was getting to that stage myself when I was past 30 and still feeling great.

"But I was thinking to myself: how do I prolong this?

"Kenny was great. We spoke for half-an-hour on the phone.

"He doesn't really have a secret. I think it's his personality because he's so enthusiastic.

"He's unique. Not in the slightest is he getting pulled out of training or managing himself.

"He's flying about and he's in every day. He's got that young boy in him.

"Kenny has a love for football that you can just tell when you train and play with him.

"He was more of a runner at Celtic, chasing everything, and when he trains here he's on it every day.

"Obviously he lives really well as a top professional. People say that should be the bare minimum, but not a lot of people have his desire.

"I think it's mainly down to his own desire and personality."

Miller struck for the Taysiders with almost the last kick of the ball at Rugby Park at the weekend, and defender O'Dea maintains even that goal cannot be written off as a mere consolation.

He said: "Kenny's goal on Saturday wasn't a consolation. It was massive.

"I think if any team near the bottom in any league you'll hear them say they want a goal-scorer.

"So I think it's a big thing that he scored and I said that to him afterwards.

"If we have a player that is scoring as many as he is right now, then you're going to be far more confident compared to if you had nobody scoring goals.

"It was testament to him that he's still making runs like that in the 91st minute.

"For the team, it's important he stays on fire.

"We now know there's goal to be got and when you've got a guy giving you them in this kind of form, it gives you confidence.

"Kenny was in the team earlier in the season but we weren't creating chances and that's when you are in trouble.

"Last year we were creating chances and not finishing them, and I would argue this season we just weren't creating chances up until recently for whatever reason.

"Having Kenny through the middle, it's important we feed him as it's been shown he can finish."

Dundee head for Pittodrie tonight looking to start climbing the table with O'Dea confident they have the necessary mettle inside the dressing-room to help them survive their crucial basement battle.

He added: "I think it's important to have people in your team who will just churn out 7s every week.

"You can have younger players who will be up and down but it's a long season and there's up and downs.

"You'll find senior players will stay more mellow and clam with it all.

"We would like to think we have a good core here. If there's something needing fixed during a game, then we'll take responsibility.

"Having that bit of a streetwise approach around the younger ones certainly helps.

"When I grew up, I looked to the older ones all the time when something went wrong.

"Now that I'm a but older, I would like to think I am calm enough to sort something out on the pitch.

"There's been plenty to be encouraged about over the last few weeks.

"We had been on a nice little run until Kilmarnock, but it's never going to be plain sailing.

"We know what we're good at now and we know what we're about.

"There was a 25-minute spell at Kilmarnock when things went wrong, but we're confident we know what we're doing.

"It's big that we feel much more confident that we can come back from a bad result.

"If you look at the Hibs comeback recently, that was the game when I thought we can come back from things.

"We probably lost a bit of composure trying to come back against Kilmarnock too early, and they're very good at waiting to capitalise on things.

"So it's something to be learned from and we know Aberdeen is always a tough venue."

Dundee full-back Nathan Ralph is set to return after serving a one-match ban against Killie.