Tam Scobbie knows all about Tayside derbies having played in enough of them for St Johnstone.
However, it will be a step into the unknown for the 29-year-old defender now that he is at Dundee United when his side make the short journey to Dens this Sunday in the Betfred Cup.
As is traditional, the Tangerines squad will walk to their rivals’ ground, something that came as a bit of a surprise to Scobbie, who said: “I just thought we’d get the bus, to be honest!
“It will be something different that I haven’t experienced before.
“I am sure when the fixtures were announced all the boys wanted to be part of it.
“Everyone in the dressing-room will make sure they are properly prepared to go there and hopefully get a result.
“It will be a massive game. Our fans have sold out their allocation of tickets so they will be looking forward to going up the road to their big rivals.
“The manager said we will need to prepare properly which we will do.
“We have a rest day on Monday but starting on Tuesday we will look to build up to the game.
“I am sure they will be the same as I saw Neil (McCann) was disappointed with the Dundee performance against Buckie.
“He will be at them to make sure they are right up for the game against us as it is massive for them as well.
“It will be good to be involved in a big derby like that for the first time and I am really looking forward to it.”
Scobbie and the rest of the United players will arrive at Dens in confident frame of mind with Sunday’s 4-1 win over Cowdenbeath at Tannadice making it three wins out of three so far in the Betfred Cup.
He said: “It was a good win and it keeps the momentum going.
“The manager has been speaking about that since I came in that these games weren’t just warm-ups.
“The season started from the first game and we need to keep progressing and winning matches as we have been doing.
“So it was a positive result against Cowdenbeath but we are just disappointed with the slack goal we gave away.
“It is something we have been trying to implement into our mentality that we do not concede goals so we will sit down, look at it, see if we could have done better and take that into Sunday.”
Scobbie added: “I think the performances have been good.
“The manager shuffled things about a little bit against Cowdenbeath.
“Some boys have picked up knocks but the lads who have come in have done fantastically well.
“Matty Smith up top did brilliantly.
“But everybody can take plaudits for the three wins as they were difficult games especially so early on in the season.
“But they have been good for us.”
