Steven Pressley Transforms Dundee's Derby Fortunes
Tote bag slung over his shoulder, grin stretching across his face, Steven Pressley cut a relaxed figure as he led his Dundee players down Tannadice Street and into the cauldron of the derby.
Twelve months ago, that same walk carried a very different weight.
Back then, the 52-year-old was the lightning rod for fury among a deeply sceptical Dens Park support. His appointment had been greeted with open hostility. Results did nothing to calm the storm: a League Cup group-stage exit after back-to-back defeats to lower-league sides, followed by a five-game winless start in the Premiership.
The fourth match of that grim run? A 2-0 home defeat to Dundee United. The knives were out. Pressure was piling on a coach many fans never wanted.
Fast forward a year and the same scoreline lit up the Tannadice board. Only this time it was Dundee’s away end roaring, their team winning 2-0 and climbing to second in the table. The boos of last August had been replaced by bouncing, jubilant supporters spilling out onto the street.
“I’m immensely proud of this group of players,” Pressley told BBC Scotland, his voice steady but the emotion clear. “Derby games are never won on tactical detail, they’re won on spirit and determination and I think we had that in abundance.”
He stayed true to type: calm, straight-talking, no temptation to dress it up. If anything, he went the other way.
“We didn’t carry out any part of [the game plan] to be honest,” he admitted. “But what was very apparent in our performance was the grit and determination that your supporters are generally so proud of.”
That grit has become a habit. Stretching back to the end of last season, when Dundee clung on to safety with three wins in their final four league games, Pressley’s side have now taken five victories from their past seven Premiership outings. The form line is no fluke. It’s a pattern.
He refuses to get carried away in public. Talk of targets is kept deliberately muted, the message outwardly controlled. Inside the dressing room, though, there is no doubt about the ambition: improve on last season’s eighth place and prove this resurgence has substance.
“What’s most pleasing is that the three league games have been incredibly difficult games,” Pressley said. “But there’s a spirit and togetherness about us just now that is serving us well.”
That togetherness is drawn from an unlikely cast.
Once mocked as a joke figure by many, the former Carlisle boss has won over a dressing room with an easy, engaging personality and a clear sense of what players need to feel valued. His four-year spell on the coaching staff at Brentford, one of the Premier League’s sharpest operators, has clearly sharpened his on-field work too.
His contacts south of the border have allowed Dundee to work smartly in the loan market, but this is not a side built on glamour. It is a group stitched together from the overlooked and the underappreciated in Scottish football.
Ryan Flynn, now at Arbroath and a former Pressley player at Falkirk, described him to BBC Scotland as a master at instilling confidence and building an environment where players can thrive. The evidence is all over this Dundee squad.
Drey Wright, the man who smashed home the opener at Tannadice, has quietly become a vital cog since arriving from St Johnstone, his versatility a constant asset. Alan Forrest, discarded by Hearts, has been given a fresh platform. Forwards Charlie Reilly and Joe Bevan were plying their trade with Albion Rovers only a few years ago, far from the glare of derby days.
Then there is Owen Bevan. On loan at Hibernian in 2024 without making a single appearance, the centre-back stepped into the heat of this derby and delivered. He scored the second goal and, alongside Ryan Astley, stood firm during the spells when Dundee United pushed and probed, absorbing pressure in what became an impressively assured away performance.
“Sometimes winning away from home is being comfortable with the uncomfortable and we did that at times,” Pressley said, summing up a display that was more about resilience than refinement.
“It was no tactical detail that won us the game today, it was a group of players that were determined not to lose that derby and I couldn’t be prouder of them.”
From jeers to joy, from second bottom to second top, the numbers tell their own story. The real question now is how far this unlikely, stitched-together Dundee side can push the limits of what anyone thought was possible when Pressley first walked through the door.
