Dundee manager Tony Docherty praised Scott Tiffoney’s work ethic after the winger put in an outstanding performance in the win over Hearts on Saturday.

The 25-year-old was not in the starting line-up on the first matchday of the league season in the Dundee derby, but was brought into the team against Hearts and took his chance.

Tiffoney scored the first goal in the 3-1 win and also won a penalty which Luke McCowan duly converted.

“Nobody at the club works harder than Tiff,” said Docherty. “He’s getting stronger, he’s getting tougher and his pace is outstanding.”

“I’m a real admirer of Gerald Taylor, but I felt Tiff made life difficult for him because he was inferior to him the whole game.

“I couldn’t be happier for him and he deserved to be named man of the match.”

Shortly before Dundee’s second goal, Docherty was shown a yellow card for protesting against the decision not to show Taylor a red card for a hard and late tackle on Tiffoney.

“It was more the speed of the tackle,” he said. “I felt it was reckless and I was worried for Scott Tiffoney.”

“I don’t want anyone to be sent off, but I felt it was reckless.

“I don’t know what I got the yellow card for. I think I came out of the technical area to protest, but I was worried about Tiff because of the tackle. I thought he was injured.

“I had a bit of a dig at the referee to protect the players because Tiff was playing a great game and they had obviously marked him as someone to stop.

“He is an important player for our team, so I don’t want to lose him. If I think afterwards that I was wrong, I will apologize. I apologized to the officials anyway. I don’t like getting yellow cards because if I tell the players to stay calm, I have to stay calm too.”