The cultured left foot has created countless winners for his teams over the years.
But one calamitous swing of Charlie Adam’s right boot looks certain to have left Dundee in a terminal state as the Premiership’s ultimate losers.
The veteran midfielder’s horror assist for former side St Mirren after just four minutes played a huge part in the Dark Blues’ downfall in Paisley.
But in truth, Dee have long been doomed in a campaign where they have struggled to show any Premiership credentials and which sees Mark McGhee’s side needing a minor miracle to save their skins and overturn a six-point deficit with two games to go.
Fair play to the veteran midfielder, though.
Adam made a beeline for the travelling support at full-time to hold his hands up for the disastrous pass back that gifted Alex Greive a tap in opener.
It was a gesture which might as well have been on behalf of the whole team after a failed season.
He then fronted up to the Press to pick the bones out of another awful afternoon in a wretched campaign.
It’s certainly not how the crestfallen captain hoped that his return to the top flight with his boyhood and hometown club would have played out.
While Adam took responsibility for his early aberration, he rightly included his team-mates when he said that the Dens men played like a team that looked destined for the drop.
He said: “I take responsibility for the first goal.
“You come away from home and in the first ten or 15 minutes you try to keep it tight.
“I have tried to be clever and play it back to the goalie but it was never on and I should have just cleared my lines.
“It put us under pressure so early on – especially with the position we are in.
“You need to try and build confidence, but to then put your team-mates under that pressure is difficult. I have to hold my hands up for it and it makes it so much harder for us.
“We had started quite brightly. We did that last week against Aberdeen as well but we never got anything there either.
“In the second half we huffed and puffed but we looked like a team who was getting relegated and that’s not acceptable.
“We went down with a whimper. We have played well in spells but we haven’t really had a go.
“We have huffed and puffed all year. We have got a few good results here and there but we haven’t been able to put a string of results together and that’s what you need in this league.
“To be honest I don’t think we have been good enough and we deserve the situation we are in.
“We haven’t scored enough goals, we haven’t kept enough clean sheets either.
“That’s down to everyone, not one or two people.
“We have to show pride in the last two games for the fans and for ourselves. The next few weeks are huge for the club as a whole.”
