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This week is just business as usual for Dundee defender Darren O’Dea.

While the city builds itself into frenzy ahead of the biggest City of Discovery derby for more than a decade, O’Dea is the personification of calm.

Of course, none of this derby talk is new to him, with the Republic of Ireland international having played in his fair share of Old Firm encounters during his time at Celtic.

“This week is just business as usual for us,†said O’Dea.

“It’s all about getting ourselves back to winning ways, whoever the opposition.â€

With United fighting for their lives at the foot of the Premiership table and the Dark Blues aiming to get back to winning ways to aid their chances of a first back-to-back top-half finishes since the 1970s, few derbies in recent years have meant so much on both sides of Tannadice Street.

O’Dea is not the type to get worked up by an occasion, though.

“I have years of experience in football behind me,†he said.

“And if this game has taught me one thing, it is that you need to stay calm.

“Getting too high or too low is not so good.

“When we have been winning games we have still been working as hard as we have after we have been losing games.

“You have to stay level-headed as a footballer.â€

Defensively, Dundee have looked a whole lot more solid since O’Dea arrived, following the season-ending injury to James McPake the last time the city rivals met at Dens Park back in January.

However, despite obvious improvement as a unit, the Rangers defensive debacle is still fresh on the minds of many in the Dark Blues fanbase.

O’Dea said: “Defensive problems have been uncharacteristic of the team in my time here.

“Rangers was poor. You could say it was naïve almost. I think we proved that against Hearts.

“But it hasn’t been that way for 90% of the games I have played in for this football club

“It was a blip, though. We moved on pretty quickly.

“We have not done anything differently lately.

“We are still doing the things we were when the results were going our way.

“It’s just that on a Saturday we have not managed to win.

“Training has been no different. Nor do I think it should be.â€

The former Celtic, Ipswich, Leeds and Reading defender continued: “We had been on a really good run to that point.

“It was a solid run where we were scoring goals and keeping it tight at the back.

“Then we were so poor against Rangers and all of that changed.

“The perception of our season changed in that one game.â€

Perspective is something O’Dea has called for in the run-up to this weekend.

This is the first time in a long time the Dark Blues have had the upper hand heading to Tannadice.

It’s also the first time in a long time they have the chance to finish higher than fifth — their best since winning the league in 1962.

“Our aim is to take this club to a level some supporters will never have experienced,†he said.

“We want to finish as high as this club ever has done since winning the league.

“That is still all there to play for.

“Everything we wanted at the start of the year is still there to be won.

“We wanted a cup run — it ended prematurely but we had that.

“And we wanted a top-six finish. We can still achieve that — we are in a good position to achieve it.â€



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