“Hamilton have signed a few boys recently and I didn’t think I was going to be first choice at the start of next season and, when the manager told me there were a couple of clubs interested, I decided to speak to them,” said Gilhaney.

“One of them was Dundee and, when I met Alex Rae and Dave McKinnon last week, I liked what they were saying about the plans here.

“I know this means I’m staying in the First Division, but, with the set-up at Dundee, I don’t believe that’ll be for much longer. Everything here is geared for the Premier League and that’s where I’m aiming to go.”

Dens chief executive MacKinnon was delighted with the latest capture and promised more would follow soon.

“I’ve known Mark for a few years now and he’s a very good player who I am confident will do a good job here at Dundee,” he said.

“We’ve been speaking to other players and a couple have agreed terms. By the end of the week, there is a chance we could be making as many as three more signings.”

In addition to all that, Clyde’s Craig McKeown and Eric Paton of Queen of the South have both signed their contracts for next term and will be paraded in the next few weeks.

The two defenders had penned pre-contract agreements with the Dark Blues back in January.

Meanwhile, Plymouth Argyle are set to join the queue of clubs who want to get their hands on star Dundee midfielder Kevin McDonald.

Dundee United legend Paul Sturrock has just led the Pilgrims to their highest league finish in England for 20 years and is looking to strengthen his squad for a crack at reaching the Premiership next season. That could see a move for the 19-year-old, who will tonight be in the Scotland Under-21 side that faces Norway at Kilmarnock’s Rugby Park.

If Plymouth do bid, they are likely to offer an immediate payment in the region of £300,000, with the prospect of that increasing by another six-figure sum based on the number of appearances McDonald makes.

Whether that would be enough to persuade the Dark Blues to part with their prized asset remains to be seen, but what it might do is spark a bidding war.

The Old Firm, Everton and Spurs have watched McDonald regularly over the past year or so and Premiership newcomers West Brom have also been monitoring him closely.

An offer from elsewhere could see those clubs make their moves and that would only strengthen Dundee’s bargaining position.

Full-back Paul Dixon, who has indicated he will be moving on, is attracting interest from the SPL.

St Johnstone have been favourites for some time now to get his signature, but Aberdeen could emerge with a late bid to snatch him away.

The Dons have been blighted all season by shaky defending and boss Jimmy Calderwood believes Dixon could be the man to add steel to a rearguard which has conceded 58 league goals.

Since the title race swung Celtic’s way after Rangers drew at Motherwell on Saturday, phone lines at United have been jammed by fans trying to book their seats for the match.

A big chunk of those calls have come from Hoops supporters trying to get their hands on home end tickets, but United have been taking steps to make sure that does not happen.

Today, only fans whose names are on the club’s database were being allowed to make purchases and, as is the norm, anyone found to be in the wrong end on Thursday would be ejected.

“We do not have any away tickets and I would expect the few we have left for the home end will be gone quickly,” said a club spokesman.

While the Tangerines do not want to see Celtic, or anyone else, winning the league on their patch, the thrilling climax to the title race has thrown them a nice windfall.

The capacity crowd, plus television revenue from the game being shown live by satellite broadcasters Setanta, will see a nice six-figure end-of-season bonus coming their way.

Thursday will also be a night of farewells, though, with the game being switched from Sunday, it’s now unlikely Christian Kalvenes will be able to return from Norway to take a final bow on the pitch.

Midfielders Willo Flood and Mark Kerr are likely to be playing their last games, with Flood returning to FA Cup finalists Cardiff City at the end of his year-long loan and Kerr also set to move south this summer under freedom of contract.

He is still interesting Preston North End and Nottingham Forest, among others.

Definitely out of the final game is broken foot victim Craig Conway, while boss Craig Levein is unlikely to use skipper Lee Wilkie, who is just a booking away from suspension.

Wilkie was involved in a training ground bust-up with team-mate Mihael Kovacevic at the weekend, but that will have nothing to do with his being left out.

“I’ll probably have Lee on the bench as cover — that’s what I did with Barry Robson last year,” said Craig.

“What happened at training is not an issue. It’s the kind of thing that happens about once a week — if fact on Friday it was Jim O’Brien and Morgaro Gomis at it.

“What it shows is the players are definitely up for this game and, knowing them quite well now, I can sense there has been an edge to their work over the last few days.”

The manager was in Glasgow today as the Scottish football community turned out en-masse for Tommy Burns’ funeral.