The calmest man on the pitch for the Dundee derby could very well be a teenager who a year ago was playing in front of hundreds rather than the thousands who will fill Tannadice.
Blair Spittal’s previous New Year fixture was a League Two trip with Queen’s Park to Broadwood on January 4 2013, when just 751 people watched him score in a 2-1 win over Clyde.
Twelve months on and Spittal, who turned 19 just before Christmas, is set to star for Dundee United against city rivals Dundee tomorrow in front of a full house and a nationwide TV audience.
You wouldn’t know that from speaking to him, though, as it appears that the ice that has covered Scotland over the festive period also runs through the midfielder’s veins.
There is no derby fever fretting this particular youngster, who already knows what it’s like to be a winner in the city clash.
He came off the bench for the latter stages of United’s 4-1 Premiership win at Dens Park on September 21, then followed that up with a start against the Dark Blues at Tannadice in the League Cup just three days later when the Tangerines edged through thanks to a last-gasp header from Jaroslaw Fojut.
Now he is coolly looking forward to playing well and hopefully helping United to what would be their third derby success of the season.
“I loved the pace of the play in the derbies and the second one was a real battle between two good teams,” recalled Spittal, who is regarded by many at the club as United’s next big thing.
“It was a great game because we won it but it was close!
“We have won twice this season against Dundee so they will be desperate to get one back but we know if we play like we can then we can get the win that everyone at the club wants.
“This is another big match for our fans but I don’t really think about all the derby stuff when I am playing.
“It’s a new game and you have to shut the crowd and noise out.
“I find that I can really focus all my attention on how I am going to play and how the team is going to play.
“What I want to do is perform well personally and win the match.
“My job is to get the right result as part of a team effort and if we do that our fans will be heading home happy.”
The Tangerines, of course, suffered a hugely disappointing 2-1 defeat to St Johnstone on Saturday, failing to build on what was a wonderful win over Celtic in their last Tannadice outing.
Inconsistency has obviously been a problem but Spittal is confident that they can put the loss to Saints behind them and finish the festive period on a real high.
“Both Dundee and ourselves suffered a defeat at the weekend (the Dens men went down 3-1 at home to St Mirren) but because this is a derby all that happened before will be forgotten,” he added.
“It is about what happens on the day.
“Had we won on Saturday we would have been looking at it and saying that we had a good Christmas but victory over Dundee would help make it a decent festive period overall.
“We should probably have been out of sight against St Johnstone before they equalised and we got punished.
“We can learn from that for the derby because we do need to be more ruthless in front of goal.”