What a difference a year and a day makes.
Rewind to January 1, 2015, and Dundee United’s fans were loving it as their team hammered Dundee 6-2 at Tannadice.
Fast forward to Saturday’s clash between the city sides at Dens Park, however, and it was a totally different story.
This time is was the Dark Blues who were feeling festive as they took the New Year honours with a 2-1 victory.
Not only that, but their supporters were able to taunt their rivals in tangerine with chants of “Down, Down” to the tune of that Petula Clark classic Downtown (anyone under 40 should google it).
United, who finished with 10 men when Guy Demel was sent off, are haunted by relegation at the dawn of 2016.
This result may well convince even their most optimistic of fans that the cause is lost.
They now sit 11 points adrift of second-bottom Kilmarnock and a whopping 16 behind the Dens men, with just 17 games left in their Premiership season.
As has been the case all too often, they put their heart and soul into a game only to end up with nothing to show for all that effort.
It was another hard-luck story to start a new year after almost 12 months of individual errors, missed opportunities and, above all, terrible defending.
As for the Dark Blues, they and their supporters can breathe a little bit easier thanks to these three precious derby points.
It wasn’t a dazzling display from them by any means and United were the better team for large chunks of the match.
However, they still came out on top and they did so after dealing with what was a massive early setback when they lost captain James McPake to a terrible kneecap injury.
They also showed character to recover after the Tangerines took the lead through a superb freekick from Blair Spittal on 15 minutes.
Kane Hemmings fired the Dark Blues level on 41 minutes then what proved to be the winner for the home side came on 62 minutes when a strike from Nick Ross took a wicked deflection off United’s Sean Dillon to make it 2-1.
Dundee boss Paul Hartley admitted: “We weren’t at our best but showed great fight and spirit on a tricky pitch.
“These games are just about winning.
“We have been involved in them long enough to know it’s just about getting the bragging rights for the supporters.
“They have suffered over the last 10-12 years by not winning many derby games.
“Hopefully we’re starting to see a change in the city now.”
United manager Mixu Paatelainen was once again left to ponder just how his team let another match slip by.
He said: “We should have had the game sewn up by half-time.
“I have said this quite a few times now: ‘How did we lose that game?’
“It’s quite unbelievable.
“Throughout the 90 minutes, there is one team that passes the ball systematically, one team that creates goalscoring opportunities, one team that has a system to worry the opponent. Yet we lose the game.
“Opponents score every week against us. We don’t obtain clean sheets. We’re not sharp enough.
“We can talk about luck and Dundee rode their luck against us.
“They were very lucky with the second goal – very lucky – but you can also say we should have done better with the first goal.
“I believe the more you try, the more determined you are, the more focused you are, you create your own luck.
“That’s something we don’t have out there. But we’ve said this for a few weeks now and it simply must stop.”
The Dark Blues handed a first start of the season to Cammy Kerr, while Paul McGinn also came in.
Out went the suspended Greg Stewart, while Gary Irvine dropped down to the bench where he was joined by club captain Kevin Thomson.
As expected, United went with new signing Eiji Kawashima in goal.
The Japanese international had done enough during his short time since his arrival to persuade Paatelainen to give him the nod over Michal Szromnik.
The visitors were without the injured Callum Morris and the banned Mark Durnan.
They brought back Dillon, who came on as a sub during the match against Hearts to replace Morris, while Spittal was also promoted from the bench.
It was a typically frantic derby opening but United nearly gifted Dundee a dream start on seven minutes thanks to an error from defender Gavin Gunning.
The Irishman was way short with a passback to Kawashima as Hemmings raced in but the goalie did well to boot upfield and Dundee failed to capitalise.
There was a major blow for the home team on nine minutes when McPake raced out to challenge an inrushing John Rankin.
It looked like McPake had won the ball in a 50-50 but he was badly hurt in the process and was treated on the park for several minutes.
McPake was eventually carried off on a stretcher with a quarter of an hour of the game gone he dislocated his knee cap – to be replaced by Kostadin Gadzhalov.
Once the dust settled, referee Kevin Clancy gave a freekick to the away team and that would prove a crucial award.
Standing 22 yards from goal, up stepped Spittal to float in a beautiful strike with his right foot that was touched by Dundee goalie Scott Bain but still rattled the back of the net.
On 27 minutes, the home team had an opportunity when United’s Paul Dixon slipped inside the box, leaving Hemmings with a clear sight of goal. However, Kawashima did well to save his angled drive.
United thought they had gone 2-0 up on 35 minutes when Billy Mckay played the ball goalwards but Kevin Holt cleared off the line just in time.
The visitors had a penalty claim when Scott Fraser went down inside the box but ref Clancy waved play on then Bain did well to save a shot from outside the box from Rankin.
With just four minutes to go until half-time, the Dark Blues pulled level against the run of play.
The loose ball was drilled home by Hemmings from 10 yards after Kawashima had failed to punch away a freekick from Nicky Low.
As United pressed, Mckay’s cross from the right just needed a touch but Chris Erskine couldn’t reach it as it raced across the face of the Dundee goal.
The match was pretty niggly and United’s Guy Demel, who had been booked earlier for his reaction to being fouled by Ross, was lucky not to have been punished for appearing to catch Low with his knee just before the break.
After the interval, Spittal sent another freekick just past the post on 53 minutes then Paul McGowan did the same for the hosts with his long-range shot.
United lost a heartbreaking goal on 62 minutes as Dundee grabbed the lead.
Ross was the scorer with his first counter for the Dens men but he got a big break as the ball took a cruel deflection off United defender Dillon and sent Kawashima the wrong way.
McGowan should have added to Dundee’s lead five minutes later but he somehow screwed his shot beyond the far post from close range.
United were reduced to 10 men for the second match in a row on 82 minutes when Demel picked up his second booking of the match from dragging Low to the ground near the away dugout.
Spittal had a chance with a freekick from the edge of the box with five minutes remaining but his shot was deflected for a corner.
That was that for United as the Dens men held on for the victory.