Well here we are – it’s derby week again!
Dense park has certainly been a happy hunting ground for United over the years, with three of our four trophies having been won there, and a glance at the statistics for matches at this dilapidated stadium between the sides shows a distinct edge for the away team!
So should we believe the history? Or is it clouding our judgement as we approach Saturday? It’s hard to know what to think to be sure and this is one fixture where form quite often goes out the window, and as for fine football – well you can forget that!
United surely go into this fixture as bookies’ favourites however, with new manager Hegarty seeming to have inspired the players to lift their until now inconsistent form, and our current run of no fewer than four straight away victories tells its own story. But derbies often don’t go according to plan and I’ve been at a few in my time where the form book was wrong on the day.
In the past players were perhaps a bit more psyched up for this fixture than now, as the era of one club players is long gone. However if any encouragement is needed I’m sure our manager, a veteran of many derby successes, will provide whatever inspiration is required.
It will be interesting to see if the 3-5-2 formation, recently employed with much success, is deployed against the dark blues, or whether he will revert to a more cautious 4-4-2. His opposite number is, according to a lot of Dees, not exactly a tactical wizard, although nothing will EVER beat Bonetti at the team talk before the game talking about Jim Lauchlan, who was suspended for the game!
Talking of laughs this fixture usually provides a few of them too! I’ll not forget being held up in the air by Highland Arab last season after we’d scored, and of course hop-along-Ivano takes some beating too!