Josh Meekings insists revenge will not be a motivating factor for Dundee when they head across the road to Tannadice.
The Dark Blues go into tonight’s clash against Championship leaders Dundee United having lost the previous two derbies.
United won 6-2 on their own pitch back in August then beat James McPake’s men 2-0 in the second encounter at Dens on November 8.
Both losses have “hurt,” as Meekings admits, but that doesn’t mean vengeance will be what is driving on Dundee when they take the field this evening.
Instead, Meekings insists they are only interested in themselves and targeting three points that will mean they will have won a hat-trick of matches after beating Dunfermline and Partick Thistle in the build-up to the third city clash of the season.
The central defender claimed: “It is nothing to do with revenge.
“It is just about going out and doing our job for our club.
“We need to concentrate on ourselves and ourselves alone.
“United are doing what they have been doing. They have been good this season but we need to take care of our own business.
“The way we will approach it is nothing to do with them, as far as I am concerned.
“The game itself is 11 versus 11 and we need to be the better team on the night, and make sure we come away with the three points.
“Hopefully, we have learned from those two derby defeats.
“Obviously, you never forget. It will always hurt but the main thing is that we maintain our focus on the next match.
“If we do that – just take it game by game – we will see where it takes us. Anything can happen after that.
“Basically, we had a new group that had come together at the start of the season and a few boys, including myself, hadn’t played in a Dundee derby before.
“We know what it’s about now, though.”
Looking back to the Dens game, the home team fell flat despite going into that fixture on the back on three consecutive victories.
This time they have won two in a row against the Pars and Jags, results which are certainly not to be sniffed at.
Meekings added: “It’s nice to obviously come off the back of a couple of wins.
“It is always good to go into a big game like the derby with a positive mindset.
“I thought it was a professional performance at the weekend, the way we went about our business at Partick Thistle.
“It was nice also to get a clean sheet and do our job properly.
“All the boys are positive with what has happened in the last couple of weeks and we can take that feeling into the United match.”
What everyone at Dundee is hoping for is to go on a run that would really drive them up the league table.
Win tonight then kick on in the new year is the plan.
Meekings added: “That is the way we need to look at it.
“We need to be more positive.
“We want to give the fans something to focus on and cheer about.
“It has not been easy and the few weeks before our last two wins weren’t great.
“We hit a sticky patch but we got ourselves out of it by keeping our cool and doing the right things, so we hope to keep on making progress.
“We were all working and training hard together beforehand but it just wasn’t coming together on the pitch.
“Now it is beginning to come together and we hope to take that into this next game, which is massive for everyone at Dens.
“We owe it to ourselves, the management and to the fans to put on a good show because as we all know the last two derby results haven’t been great for Dundee.”
Meekings will have one of – if not the – toughest jobs in the Championship tonight when he will be asked to keep United’s 21-goal striker Lawrence Shankland quiet.
He wasn’t keen to talk too much about the opposition, though, maintaining his mantra of purely focusing on Dundee.
“Of course, they’re much more than a one-man team,” he said.
“They’ve got many good players.
“You don’t just go on the sort of run and do what they have done without a good squad and team.
“But I would rather not talk about them.
“Our focus is on ourselves.
“Ultimately, if we don’t do our job then it won’t happen for us.
“I believe if we do our jobs, though, we have got plenty in our dressing-room to cause them problems on the night.”
