I already can’t wait for Sunday.
The first Dundee derby in over two years promises to be a cracker.
Dundee finished in the top six last season for the first time since 2015.
United won the Championship and won promotion back to the top flight.
There is momentum on both sides of the street.
It’s been a good while since that has been the case.
And it promises to be a great contest to witness.
Breath-taking
Which is why it is no surprise tickets have been snapped up in no time at all.
And why those who have missed out are so massively annoyed.
Derbies are all about emotion. That’s the whole point.
There’s something about a local rivalry – and none get more local than Dundee and United – that needles directly into the soul of a football fan.
That’s why demand for tickets has been so high.
It is huge credit to the supports of both clubs that five full days before the game gets under way there isn’t a spare ticket to be found anywhere.
Dundee United fans snapped up their allocation inside 90 minutes.
That’s ridiculous.
And after season ticket holders got first dibs on the away briefs, the general sale for Dundee fans lasted just over an hour.
Amazing from both sets of supporters.
Breath-taking really.
Issues
I do feel for those who missed out, though.
As a supporter of a diddy club that very rarely sells anything out, I can’t pretend to know exactly how infuriating it might be to miss out.
But I see the reactions from Dundee fans who found problems with the club’s new ticketing system and ended up missing out.
There are a number of fans unhappy with the way the club has handled the whole thing.
And the way the club have handled ticketing in general for so long.
There are definitely lessons to be learned by Dundee, absolutely no doubt about it.
Because it shouldn’t be difficult to buy a ticket for a football match.
And it feels like it has been for Dundee fans for a good while now.
To be fair, this new ticketing system is the club attempting to improve things on that front.
It’s just not worked nearly as smoothly as anyone hoped it would.
Take heed
But the tickets were sold and fans will pack the stands regardless of the issues.
I just hope those in charge at the club take heed of the unfortunate folk who missed out because the system glitched.
There is plenty of goodwill around the club at the moment, helped massively by the football on show.
That’ll get a huge boost if Tony Docherty can mastermind a first derby win at Tannadice since 2004.
Long-term, though, the club needs to sort out the ticketing system to ensure that feelgood factor isn’t tarnished needlessly.
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