And, following promising displays against Dunfermline and Queen of the South, the manager has moved swiftly to secure the services of the young Dundonian.

“Kyle has been given this new deal as a reward for his efforts on the park and on the training ground,” said Jocky.

“He’s shown in the three games he’s played that he has real potential to be a good player.

“I also wanted to make sure he was tied to Dundee FC and nobody sniffing about could take him away.”

Unfortunately, Benedictus, who first came to the club’s attention through Dundee City Council’s Kick It Kick Off learning centre, looks like facing a spell on the sidelines after having to come off injured during the second half against Queen of the South.

“He has a tear in his calf muscle. We should know how bad it is once he’s had a scan,” said Jocky.

“But he’s feeling a lot better and he assures me he’s a quick healer, so I hope that’s the case because he’s done very well since he came in.”

Meanwhile, the manager is set to bolster his squad with a loan signing ahead of next week’s home game against St Johnstone.

Although the Dens gaffer wouldn’t reveal the player’s identity or position, it’s hoped he’ll be able to join the club at the beginning of next week.

“We thought we might be able to get him here today, but, with us having no game this week, he’s going to stay and play a reserve game for his club and, hopefully, we’ll get him here on Monday,” said Jocky.

Paul McHale, Gary MacKenzie, David Cowan and Jim Lauchlan will continue their recovery from injury this evening when they feature in a closed-door game against Forfar.

However, with the first XI. having bagged seven points from their last three games, Jocky insists they’ll have to play their way back into a starting place.

“Our squad is getting back into decent shape, although I could still do with a few more players.

“But you always need competition for places. I’ve told the players they can help me pick the team if they perform well on match days, and that’s what they’ve been doing recently.”

Meanwhile, Jocky admitted to mixed feelings about having no game this week, thus denying his side the chance to build on their recent run of good form.

“It can work two ways. With the results we’ve had, maybe it would have been good to get a game. Against Queen of the South, we played very well and it was pleasing to see a lot of the things we had been working on in training taken onto the pitch.

“On the other hand, the extra week off allows the injured guys to build up their fitness.”

“I’m not going down there with a view to changing the team drastically,” said Craig.

“But the guys who are taking part today need to know they have to be at the top of their game as it’s very important they are ready to play if called upon.”

For Watson, it’s a case of continuing his recovery from injury. The young defender, who has been plagued by knee trouble over the past few seasons, was pencilled in for a run after suffering a slight knock in the same area.

Along with midfielder Scott Robertson, who has been called into the Scotland squad for tomorrow’s glamour friendly against Argentina at Hampden, several other United men are on international duty this week.

Keeper Lukasz Zaluska is in the Polish squad, defender Mihael Kovacevic is with Switzerland, striker Warren Feeney is on duty for Northern Ireland and fellow-frontman David Goodwillie is in the Scotland Under-21 party for the game against Northern Ireland at Hamilton tonight.

“It looks like the only player missing will be the suspended Martin Hardie,” said boss Derek McInnes.

Saints have no game this Saturday, and Derek continued, “The players are working hard, but are likely to get an extra day off over the weekend which will give them a chance to refuel.”