Dundee United 0
Dundee 0
League (Premier League)

Match Report

Dundee took a point from the first derby of the season with defender Lee Wilkie turning in an awesome performance to press his case for inclusion by Berti Vogts for his first competitive game for Scotland after playing out of his skin against United.

The match was marred by a awful tackle by United's Alan Smart, who marked his first derby with a red card after putting in a career threatening challenge on Jonay Hernandez. Mercifully the Venezuelan was unhurt.

To Dundee's credit this was the only one of many heavy tackles that anyone in Dark Blue (at least on the pitch) complained about, proving that Jim Duffy has adding a harder core to the team.

The difference in Fabian Caballero this season is incredible, not just in fitness and work rate but also in that he is just getting up and getting on with it even after being continually scythed down.

For the first time in a long while Dundee matched United in work-rate and although they lacked a cutting edge, they can be well pleased with the way they performed.

Amongst those most deserving of praise is Barry Smith who did a man-marking job on United's midfielder Charlie Miller. Their danger man still showed flashes of the skills which did so much damage to Dundee last season, but Barry can be proud of keeping him pretty quiet overall.

In a game of few chances Dundee's had two real scoring opportunities. After 24 minutes, Nacho cut inside after being set free by Giorgi's wonderful pass to hit an angled drive, which was well saved by Gallacher, while Novo was also heavily involved in the moment which should have brought a winner after 55 minutes.

His lung-bursting run from defence appeared to be going nowhere until he threaded a gorgeous little through ball to Lovell, big Steve had timed his run to perfection but failed to realise he had time and in his hurry sclaffed the shot into the keeper's arms.

Julian Speroni on the other hand was rarely troubled apart from agilely tipping over a lovely curling free-kick from Danny Griffin.

New boy Tom Hutchinson made his debut and performed well before going down with cramp after 71 minutes. He looks as if he'll fit in nicely alongside the ever improving Wilkie.

Match report written by Dundee Matchday Programme