Dundee United boss Ray McKinnon believes his side have built up a fair head of steam ahead of next week’s derby at Dens.
The Tangerines made it three Betfred Cup wins in a row yesterday at Tannadice with a comfortable 4-1 win over Cowdenbeath.
McKinnon was satisfied with the victory as well as the manner in which it was achieved and he admits he now cannot wait to sample what will be his first taste of the Dundee derby as a manager.
He said: “I watched Dundee on Saturday against Buckie Thistle and it will be a tough game up at Dens.
“But at least we’ll go there on the back of some decent form.
“This should set us up nicely for that derby.
“This will be my first derby as manager so I can’t wait. It should be an excellent experience.
“It’s very pleasing overall.
“It was a tricky tie with Cowdenbeath coming here and having everyone behind the ball.
“It can make life difficult trying to break them down.
“At half-time, we wanted to be more direct, so we changed the system a bit.
“We maybe tried to overplay a bit and score the perfect goal but there were some good goals in there despite that.
“It was also good to get goals from different areas of the park.”
Patrick N’Koyi and Mark Durnan missed the game against the Blue Brazil with McKinnon adding: “Patrick got injured on Saturday. He did his thigh muscle when he shot in training.
“So we will just have to monitor him and see how it goes.
“Mark is feeling his back but hopefully he should be OK for next week.”
Meanwhile, Cowdenbeath boss Billy Brown was naturally disappointed with the defeat although he was heartened by the display.
However, like other managers of part-time sides like Arbroath’s Dick Campbell, he feels this is still far too early in the season for them to be playing competitive fixtures.
He said: “I thought for a team that finished bottom of all the leagues in Scotland last season, they acquitted themselves fairly well.
“But we had young boys out there and even on the bench we had Ryan Connelly who is still at school.
“It is disappointing getting beaten 4-1 but we have to take a lot out of the game.
“United were better than us but it is far too early for part-time teams and to make it even harder we can’t play any trialists.
“Why we can’t use them is beyond me.”
