By Sean Saranczuk
January 26 2004

Substitute Steve Lovell returned from injury to fire Dundee to a 2-1 victory in the first Tayside derby of 2004.
The former Portsmouth man has missed much of the campaign with a knee injury, but took only four minutes to find the net on his comeback.

United had been leading at the interval, after Billy Dodds scored a penalty, awarded when Brent Sancho took Charlie Miller's legs.

However, Dundee were fired up after the break and equalised within three minutes through Nacho Novo.

The three points gained from this win makes sure Dundee leapfrog their city rivals and almost certainly dispel any lingering thoughts of relegation. The only downside for the home side was the injury to Lee Wilkie after 29 minutes.

Dundee created an early chance and will feel they should have had more for their efforts when Wilkie found a hole in the United rearguard after Barrett had nodded on Dave MacKay's corner kick.

The Scotland man, renowned for his blundering forays forward, saw the ball come to him and attempted an audacious scissors kick. Unfortunately he got the ball lost in between his legs and sent it into the hands of Paul Gallacher.

Wilkie's involvement in the game lasted only 29 minutes, however, after he went down heavily under a challenge from Miller. He was taken off on a stretcher immediately after the incident, but gamely tried to play on but managed only two minutes before going off for good. Trinidadian defender Sancho came on in his place.

Sancho almost immediately opened the scoring, meeting a Gary Brady corner with his head at the back post. His powerful effort was on target, but Gallacher managed to get his hands to the ball and beat it clear.

Sancho's frantic afternoon took a turn for the worse in the 44th minute when, as a result of some cute footwork from the United playmaker, he whipped the feet from under Miller inside the penalty area. Dodds stepped up to take the kick and sent the ball rolling into the bottom right-hand corner.

Dundee attacked straight from the restart and levelled the scores within three minutes.

Rangers target Novo used his blistering pace to get in ahead of Alan Archibald, forcing the former Partick Thistle to whip the legs from under him.

Fotheringham lofted the dead ball towards the back post for Sancho, who hooked it back into the six-yard box for the Spaniard. The free-scoring forward, who is attracting interest from Rangers and West Ham, bundled the ball into the net for the 18th time this season.

Dundee boss Jim Duffy has maintained that the full recovery of strikers Milne and Lovell would trigger an upturn in the Dark Blues' fortunes - and so it proved in the 70th minute.

Milne slipped the ball through to his team-mate, who had only been on the park for four minutes, and he showed no signs of rustiness as he twisted Mark Wilson before curling a shot high into the top corner.