Saturday 1 November 2014 19:14, UK
Dundee manager Paul Hartley heaped praise on playmaker Gary Harkins after his terrific display against his former club Kilmarnock.
The Dark Blues recorded an impressive 3-1 win thanks to a goal from David Clarkson and two from Greg Stewart, and Harkins was at the heart of some excellent attacking play.
Hartley was quick to highlight Harkins’ performance afterwards and said the 29-year-old is the player who makes the entire team tick.
"Harkins was absolutely terrific," Hartley said. "I thought some of his football was sheer quality. We know he's got that, it's just trying to get him to do it on a consistent basis.
"In the last two or three weeks he's probably been our top player in terms of creating things for us and when he's on form, we play well.
"Harkins on his day is as good as anybody in Scottish football with the talent he's got.
“I know he's had criticism over the years but we fit him into the team because we try to surround the team with good football players and Harkins has got that.
"I thought some of our play, especially in the second half, was really good. We could have scored more than three goals."
Dundee should have been in a more comfortable position than they found themselves, hanging on slightly in the final 20 minutes after squandering numerous opportunities on the break before sealing the victory with a third goal in injury-time.
Hartley, however, was delighted that they were creating those chances, using the pace in the side to good effect.
"Some of our counter-attacking play was excellent," said Hartley.
"But when you get back to 2-1 you're sort of hanging on and we were a wee bit sloppy with some of our passing and decision-making. But the third goal was really excellent from Stewart."
Kilmarnock manager Allan Johnston was not too harsh on his players following their second defeat in a row on the back of the 2-0 loss at Celtic Park last week, and felt they actually deserved at least a point from the match.
"Obviously we're really disappointed," said Johnston. "When you look at the game overall I think a fair reflection would say that we had the bulk of possession and probably the best chances.
“We just got caught on the counter-attack too easily by giving the ball away in bad areas and we got punished for it.
"The last 20 minutes we were really pushing for it. I don't think we maybe got the break of the ball we quite needed, that wee bit of luck in the box.
“But we've got to defend better and make sure we don't lose goals like that in the first place."
