Hearts at home in August is a good fixture for this Dundee side.
Steven Naismith said post-match it was déjà vu for him and the Jambos.
And indeed it was déjà vu all over again as the Dark Blues grabbed their first win of the Premiership season with a Dens Park victory over the Edinburgh side.
Just as they did last August, thanks to Luke McCowan’s sumptuous lob over Zander Clark.
And it could have been even more eerie when the Hearts goalie passed straight to McCowan 30-odd yards out. No doubt the temptation was there to go for another long-range strike the goalie scrambling.
However, he found Scott Tiffoney and his team-mate did the damage instead.
That kicked off a superb opening 45 minutes for the Dee and kicked off the 2024/25 Premiership season in style at Dens Park.
Courier Sport was there to check out all the action.
First-half flurry
As the clock ticked over into stoppage time, Dundee were heading towards the half-time break feeling pretty content with their 1-0 lead.
Clark had been by far the busier of the goalkeepers and Hearts boss Naismith was clearly agitated throughout.
That agitation would turn to outright anger when the Jambos self-destructed and Dundee made hay before the half-time whistle.
Just minutes after narrowly escaping a red card for a dreadful tackle on Tiffoney, Gerald Taylor had a moment to forget as he got a clearance all wrong, putting through his own net.
The ridiculous gave way to the sublime from Tiffoney moments later as the winger capped a superb 45 minutes with a classic jinking run that was crudely ended by Frankie Kent giving away a penalty.
Luke McCowan stepped up and likely endeared himself to suitors Hibs even more by scoring against their big rivals.
With that, the result was Dundee’s.
Goals and keeping them out
Six games into this season, the Dark Blues have found the net 23 times. That’s just shy of four goals a game.
Last term, it took until December before Dundee hit 23 goals – 18 matches into the campaign.
Tiffoney is also the ninth Dee to find the net this season with goals flying in all over the team.
On the other hand, a major criticism of last season was the frequency with which Docherty’s side gave up leads.
This was a big step towards righting that with Hearts putting on the pressure in the second period.
They had chances but the Dark Blues handled the pressure pretty well.
It’s a big victory and one that sets goal-friendly Dundee up for the campaign to come.
Wing wonders
For the first time all season Docherty didn’t go with a 3-5-2 set-up. Instead it was the 4-3-3 that had worked well in the second half at Tannadice.
The added bonus for Dundee was the chance to get Scott Tiffoney in the team.
The former Partick Thistle man deserves real credit for transforming into a striker last season but this was him back in his most comfortable role.
A classic winger, cutting in from the left and causing all sorts of trouble.
Tiffoney was a nightmare throughout, a crude James Penrice drag back as he broke late in the second half told that story.
After grabbing the opening goal, the winger played his part in the own goal before winning the penalty.
Tiffoney was the best player on the park.
Not far behind him was the man on the other flank, Seb Palmer-Houlden.
On his Dens debut, the Bristol City man put in a tremendous shift.
Powering down the right flank throughout, Palmer-Houlden’s running brought an extra dimension to the side.
A storming first-half run brought a save from Clark from an angle before Lyall Cameron saw the rebound saved.
Then in the second half Palmer-Houlden took it upon himself to take on the Hearts defence before setting up Tiffoney, only for the Man of the Match to sky the finish.
He couldn’t continue his scoring run of four goals in three games but Palmer-Houlden is making quite an early impact at Dens.
Bench options
There is still work to do on this squad before Docherty is fully happy with it.
That was clear when looking at the bench as the match wore on. Some fresh legs in attack would have been handy in the second half but there was only one attacking option there.
And putting Curtis Main on would mean taking Simon Murray off.
Injuries have impacted the number of options but injuries are part of a football season and some more bodies are needed.
The bench had two goalkeepers and two spaces left free with Josh Mulligan and Charlie Reilly out injured alongside defenders Joe Shaughnessy and Clark Robertson.
Expect a busy three weeks on the transfer front.
