John Nelms reveals Dundee risk that paved title triumph as he insists base is better for Premiership this time

His cardiologist might not be too happy about it. But Dundee managing director John Nelms insists the risk and reward strategy that helped fire Dundee back into the big time has been worth every heart-stopping moment in the utterly frantic fight for the Championship title.

Only in the 81st minute of that final, 100mph, title-deciding showdown with Queen’s Park at Ochilview on Friday night could Nelms and everybody associated with the Dark Blues breathe easy.

That’s when Luke McCowan’s angled drive bulged the net for their fifth goal in a 5-3 thriller to finally squash the Spiders and confirm Dundee had cemented their return to the Premiership at the first time of asking. There’s absolutely no time to relax for Nelms, his co-owner Tim Keyes, technical director Gordon Strachan or boss Gary Bowyer though.

Not when 20 players - including talents who are on the radar of other clubs such as goal hero McCowan, Lyall Cameron, Josh Mulligan and Max Anderson - coming to the end of their Dens deals in the next few weeks. Throw in the fact Bowyer himself has still to commit to next season and the situation is pretty clear.

Contracts are already on the table for a few including youngsters Cameron and Mulligan and discussions with key men resumed at the weekend. But Nelms insists the strategy to shelve those talks and ensure the players’ focus was entirely on getting over the line - especially when they trailed Queen’s by seven points just a couple of months ago - was deliberate.

Risky? Absolutely. And it’s the complete opposite to when they won promotion through the play-offs two years ago only to go back down 12 months later. But it worked. And Nelms said: “There is risk in everything you do. We took a calculated risk and it worked