Bragging rights between Dundee and United fans will be fought for in different leagues this season, but they’ll still be vigorously pursued.
Dundee’s solid start against Motherwell, a top-flight club continuously since 1985, offers the promise that they’ll hold their own in the Premiership.
Dens boss Tony Docherty’s aim is to establish his team as a competitive unit, so an opening day draw was a sound afternoon’s work against a side likely to be in the same vicinity as the Dark Blues over the duration of the campaign.
United’s Championship start, a 4-0 win at Arbroath, left fans purring after a faultless display.
That performance augurs well for the visit of Dunfermline, likely to be among the stiffest of the tests United will face in their battle for promotion.
Jim Goodwin’s restrained reaction to United’s goals – and their victory – was evidence of a seasoned campaigner who knows the perils of over-exuberant early celebration.
Docherty is entitled to take pride from his Dundee side’s performance, which was high on energy and tempo, and provided a very cutely worked goal from the intelligent and lively Lyall Cameron.
Goodwin has built a team which looks to have a solid spine front to back, but looks are only skin deep; the real face of a team is revealed over the full 90 minutes.
From first to last at Gayfield, United’s appetite and work-rate was first class.
That should be a given in all teams, but often it’s not, and the fact that the Tangerines’ drive and desire never wavered over the entire game testifies to the work being done on the training ground and the commitment of the squad.
Now the trick is to maintain that level over the season.
Dundee have suffered early blows, with injuries to defenders Antonio Portales and Aaron Donnelly, and the manager is already having to rejig his early season plans to accommodate that misfortune.
All in all though, it’s been pass marks for both city sides in their opening fixtures.
The supporters bragging and boasting contests can now commence. Hopefully it’ll be a league season with plenty to shout about on both sides of the street.
When the economist John Maynard Keynes commented: “In the long run we’re all dead,” he probably wasn’t thinking about managerial signing policies.
But signings can ensure longevity or a quick demise for football bosses.
There’s a fine line between a boss holding their nerve and getting the right faces in, and leaving it too late and getting the wrong ones.
St Johnstone’s Steven Maclean isn’t panicking as injuries blight the Perth side’s start to the season.
His strategy is correct, but not risk free.
Fan patience is notoriously limited and some may think the Keynes dictum is right and that it’s worth taking a punt now on fresh bodies, lest Saints are left trailing.
MacLean wasn’t quite catapulted into the manager’s chair but, in terms of ideal planning for a new season, his promotion ideally might’ve been sooner.
Remoulding a squad is an exercise requiring lengthy forward planning and the more time a boss has the more likely he is to be successful.
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