Inside the Dundee derby: United injury miracle cure and Pressleyball with a twist in SPFL prime time slot

Both Will Ferry and Drey Wright seemed set to miss this derby due to injury and yet they both featured on the team-sheet, with the latter making maximum impact. Wright scored one of the great goals of recent times in this fixture to set the visitors on their way. The miracle cure that saw Ferry start and indeed play the whole match did not have the desired effect for the hosts. A second goal, flicked in by Owen Bevan while picking himself up off the floor following a corner, gave Dundee a handsome 2-0 lead, which they then defended well.

They knew they could ill-afford complacency. They had profited from a late Dundee United collapse at Dens Park last season, scoring two goals in injury time to draw 2-2. But nobody in the United ranks, not even Ferry, could inspire such a late comeback. Although the hosts had several chances, shots were either blocked by last-ditch Dundee defending or else whistled past either upright or over the bar.

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Jim Goodwin later admitted to reporters—who had faithfully written that Ferry would miss the clash following the Dundee United manager's pre-match briefing—that it was all a bit of a ruse. “I don’t like lying to you, you are all a good bunch of boys but at the end of the day we tried to keep that one in house,” he said afterwards. “You don’t want to give the opposition every last bit of information.”

It was one of those occasions, however, when such machinations counted for nothing. Even Steven Pressley, the triumphant Dundee manager, admitted his players had thrown away the tactics book and relied only on their wits and nerve, with minimal help from the sidelines. Somehow, despite their manager's concerns about lack of numbers, this admirable Dundee team are sitting second in the league behind Celtic on goal difference, which isn't a sentence you are going to read every day. Who says Pressley doesn’t win titles?

Of course, the Dens men have played one more than 10 other teams in the Premiership. Nevertheless, their fans delighted in this rarest of rare feelings, with Pressley himself hailed to the rafters. The song in vogue is "Pressleyball" to the tune of Boney M's Daddy Cool but the manager was brutally honest afterwards. Pressleyball had perished in the white heat of the derby. Good old-fashioned qualities like grit and determination got Dundee over the line, attributes he so often showcased in the centre of defence in his playing days.

Fittingly, Dundee’s centre-half pairing of goalscorer Bevan and Ryan Astley were men of the match along with Wright. United saw a lot of the ball but were curiously powderpuff up front, though their danger men were either well shackled or – in the case of substitutes Zac Sapsford and Lachlan Rose – brought on when, arguably, it was already too late.

United never really got going in a game that enjoyed star billing in Scotland due to the number of postponements because of several sides’ European commitments. Those neutrals watching on television were given a treat in the form of Wright’s opener on 43 minutes. It was a strike out of keeping with the cagey, mistakes-ridden fare served up prior to the breakthrough. In fact, the goal itself was sourced from an error. Young United midfielder Abdoulaye Yoro found the going hard, which isn’t unexpected given that he’s just 19-year-old and still assimilating to life in Scotland. Never mind first Dundee derby, this was his first game of any sort at the club he has joined on loan from Turkish side Basaksehir.

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His attempted pass out to the left was easily cut out by Wright just inside the Dundee player’s own half. The full-back drove forward, pre-match worries about an ankle injury clearly extinguished. With no opponent seemingly interested in shutting him down – Yoro had simply thrown his hands up in despair - he got to within a distance where he might reasonably let fly. It was still about 22 yards from goal. But with a flash of his red boots, the versatile Wright hit one of the truest shots you will see, sending the ball arrowing past Jack Walton into the side-netting.

It was a big decision to keep Yoro on for the second half. His head seemed to be gone in footballing parlance. Perhaps Goodwin might have removed him had the yellow card he picked up right at the end of the first half not been rescinded following a VAR check.

It was a potentially dangerous moment for the hosts. Yoro had been adjudged to have fouled Ryan Finnigan on the edge of the box, when really his tackle was superbly timed. The United player was then booked by referee David Dickinson for good measure. The referee was called to the sidelines as Dundee were preparing to take the free kick. He duly – and rightly - cancelled Yoro’s yellow card but then harshly booked Finnigan, whose crime had merely been to tread on the ball.

Yoro was at least able to start the second half without the jeopardy of knowing one more infringement could mean a premature end to his first match in tangerine. Goodwin later revealed he had given the youngster a pep talk during the interval and he went very close to making up for his earlier error two minutes after the restart.

His shot on the turn looked to be in all the way before Dundee keeper Own Goodman stuck out a foot and diverted the ball wide. It was a defining moment. Ten minutes later Alan Forrest’s shot, following a Finlay Robertson corner, was forced in by Owen Bevan. It wasn’t Pressleyball, but the Dundee fans liked it.