With no scheduled Old Firm encounters to entertain the wider viewing public this season, Ryan Conroy believes it is now up to the Dundee clubs to capture the essence of what Scottish football is all about.
The Dundee winger cannot wait to get a taste of his first competitive City of Discovery derby, and he is determined to put one over United when the two teams meet at Tannadice on Sunday.
As well as local bragging rights, however, Conroy hopes both sides can deliver a game that shows the SPL remains strong without the added draw of the Glasgow derbies.
”They had a decent crowd at the Edinburgh derby at the weekend and I thought it was a decent game,” Conroy said. ”So obviously because there’s no Old Firm this year the fans are getting excited about games like these.
”It’s on TV as well, so there’s going to be a big build-up throughout the whole week. So it’s up to us to put on a show for the people who watch it.
”It’s obviously going to be a hard game. Dundee United are a hard team to play against, but everybody in town is looking forward to it and it’s going to be a good week leading up to it.
”I saw the crowd and the atmosphere in the pre-season game and it was brilliant to play in and the city is buzzing for it. It gave us a taste of what it’s going to be like, but it’s a competitive game this time.
”It starts now really, the preparation for it and we’ve heard there’s going to be a big crowd.
”I think everybody will fancy Dundee United to be the favourites, but we have a point to prove every week really this year. We’re confident in our ability and I think we’ve got a few players to come back, so we’ll see what the rest of the week holds.”
Conroy felt his side were unlucky to lose 2-0 at home to St Mirren at the weekend, a result which fuelled suggestions from many pundits that Dundee’s stay in the SPL will be short-lived.
However, the Dundee players are desperate to prove the doubters wrong.
He said: ”We see what people are saying in the papers about us being favourites to go down and it just motivates us to want to prove them wrong.
”Everybody is entitled to their opinion, but we just have to do our own job.
”We were always going to be tipped to go down. It just motivates us enough to show we’re good enough to stay in this league. It’s up to us now to do it.”
Meanwhile, manager Barry Smith has selection decisions to make for the game.
Captain Stephen O’Donnell is expected to be available after playing against St Mirren on Saturday, despite suffering from a groin injury.
Nicky Riley trained on Tuesday, but may not be risked, despite having overcome the worst of his hamstring problem.
”Stephen didn’t train, but he is managing what he has just now, so hopefully he will be okay for Sunday,” said Smith.
”Nicky trained but it is a difficult one to throw him back in, given the nature of his problem.”