The Dundee Derby returns this weekend as Jim Goodwin’s inform Dundee United side take on Steven Pressley’s Dundee side who come into this fixture off the back of back-to-back league wins at Dens Park.

The last meeting between these sides came in late August this year at Dens Park, where United won 2-0. Summer signings Sapsford and Dolcek scored the goals to give the visitors all 3 points. Results have been very even in the past 7 meetings, 3 have ended in a draw, Dundee have won 2 and so have Dundee United.

Dundee United come into the fixture off the back of a 3-1 win away against bottom of the league Livingston, which now means that they are currently on a run of 5 games unbeaten, 3 draws and 2 wins, which started with a 0-0 draw against high-flying Motherwell, then a 2-1 win against the champions Celtic, a 1-1 draw against David Gray’s Hibernian, a 1-1 draw against Aberdeen at Pittodrie, and that 3-1 win in Livingston in their last outing. As a result, The Tangerines now sit in 6th place, above Aberdeen in 7th on goal difference, who lost 2-0 at Easter Road in their last outing, and 1 points above Falkirk in 8th, who lost 1-0 at Dens Park in their last match, albeit having played a game more than both.

Dundee come into this fixture off the back of back-to-back league wins for the first time under Steven Pressley and for the first time since March 2024, where they beat Aberdeen at Dens Park then went on to beat St Johnstone in Perth. The Dees now sit in 9th position, 1 point ahead of St Mirren in 10th, albeit having played 2 games more, and 6 points ahead of Kilmarnock in 11th. Should Dundee beat Dundee United this weekend, they would move only 3 points behind their city rivals. However, it will be far from easy based on their away form. The Dark Blues have only picked up 3 points on the road this campaign, 3 draws and 7 losses, which is the worst record of any team thus far.

Both sides have only kept 3 clean sheets in 20 matches in the league so far, only Livingston have less with 1 in 19. In terms of goals scored in the league, Dundee United have found the net on 28 occasions, whilst Dundee have only found the net 18 times. Only St Mirren, who have scored 16, have scored fewer thus far.

Jim Goodwin on Dundee United’s display against Livingston:

“I’m delighted with the overall performance.
“The result was the most important thing, but from start to finish we were pretty seamless.

“Going in at half-time with just a one-goal advantage was disappointing given the dominance we had in the opening period.

“This was the first time we’ve started really quickly and kept that performance going for 90 minutes.

“That’s the bar that we have to set now. We have to follow that performance up with another really important performance on Saturday.

“We know what Saturday means to the supporters.”

Steven Pressley’s on Dundee’s win against Kilmarnock:

“We played so well in the first half and went in 1-0 down. I said to them in the dressing room ‘there can be no hard luck stories tonight, we need to make sure we get what we deserve from the game’. They reacted brilliantly.

“There’s been so much growth in them recently. We had a really good result against Falkirk and coming into this game, I stressed we hadn’t recorded back-to-back victories in 20 months.

“We’re nowhere near where we need to be. We’re progressing, showing some positive signs, but football can change so quickly. But tonight was a really significant for us, a monkey off the back with the 20 months, and the players can take a great deal of confidence.”