Dundee’s Ryan Conroy has admitted building up to the city derby has given the Dark Blues a taste for top-flight football.
The friendly against neighbours Dundee United has caught the imagination of the public, with a crowd of between 9,000 and 10,000 expected to pack into Dens Park on Saturday.
Dundee are sitting waiting to discover if they will get the invite to join the SPL for the new season and they will certainly have one eye on today’s historic gathering of Scottish Football League club officials at Hampden.
They will then get a close-hand view of one of the top SPL sides when they host the Tangerines.
That prospect is not a daunting one at all for midfielder Conroy and his colleagues, having returned to Scotland with a spring in their step after a successful pre-season spell in the north of England, beating Lancaster City and Kendal Town.
”It was great to get away down to England for training and I think the two matches we had were really worthwhile,” said Conroy. ”It has been great to see all the lads again and to get stuck into the hard work.
”The new guys have all fitted in really well, too, and you can see already why the manager signed them.
”I have enjoyed being back and now we have a great match to look forward to against United on Saturday.
”We have been told the tickets have gone really well, and that just shows you what it means to the fans of both clubs to have this game to look forward to.
”It will be great to see Dens packed and the fans won’t be regarding it as a friendly. They will be looking for the bragging rights, so hopefully we can do it for them.
”It would be massive for the whole city to get it back on the fixture schedule. It will also be a terrific game to play in and hopefully I will be ready to go if I am selected by the gaffer.
”United are a good team and had a fine season last time, so we know it will be a hard game. Hopefully, we can play games like this on a more regular basis and the lads would love that to be the case.
”It will be a great bonus to get up there (in the SPL) but we will take things as they come.
”We will just have to wait and see what happens with that, but right now we have a job to do and it is getting fit for the new season.”
Conroy is one of three injury doubts for the Dark Blues ahead of the derby, although none are considered to be serious.
He has a trapped nerve, Nicky Riley is still recovering from a dead leg and skipper Stephen O’Donnell limped off with back trouble during Wednesday’s 2-0 win over Kendal.
Manager Barry Smith said: ”With all three of them, the big thing is not taking any risks and making sure they are not missing too much training. They all definitely have a good chance of making the United match.”
The Dark Blues boss is still considering whether or not to maintain his interest in trialist Zac Aley, who has been released by Blackburn.
The left-side midfielder featured against Kendal along with former Lincoln defender Adam Watts, who is also aiming to earn a contract with the Dens men.
Due to the size of the crowd that will be attending the derby, there will be no ticket sales on the day of the game. That means any spectator hoping to purchase a ticket will have to do so before close of business today.