Meanwhile, the Dens Park gaffer declared himself “quite pleased” with the weekend’s work, which saw the his men pick up points in goalless draws at Hamilton and St Johnstone.

Indeed, those two stalemates made it five clean sheets in the last six games, but, with only two wins and also a calamitous collapse against Airdrie included in that sequence, Alan knows there is still much work to be done.

“It seems to be feast or famine with us. In general, I think Bobby (Mann) and Callum (Macdonald) have done well for us recently, but we seem to be falling down at the final hurdle and can’t seem to deliver the final pass,” said Alan.

“But I’ve no problem with the work-rate in the last few games and the players have battled away really well.

“Up front, Craig O’Reilly is still learning the game and I thought Simon Lynch sacrificed himself a lot of the time against St Johnstone.”

Keeper Kelvin Jack remains a doubt for Sunday’s Tennent’s Scottish Cup tie at home to Stranraer. The Trinidad and Tobago international has a knee injury and will be nursed over the next few days.

Fellow-keeper Derek Soutar, who has also been sidelined by a knee injury, will be back in training tomorrow, although he remains some two or three weeks away from match action.

However, the manager will have no worries about utilising 17-year-old Scott Murray between the sticks once again. The youngster has kept clean sheets in the last two games.

“Scott has been great. He didn’t have much to do against Hamilton, but did the little bits well and he had a couple of decent saves against St Johnstone,” added Alan.