- NEWSFriday, September 22, 2000 New-look Dens men impress old boy Alex 36 years on By Roddy Thomson

Alex Totten's last Dundee derby was as a teenager in Bob Shankly's Dundee defence 36 years ago, when the now Falkirk manager produced a headline-grabbing display at the back in a 4-1 United win.

The late Jerry Kerr was the United manager then, before becoming general manager and handing over the team reins to Jim McLean and, in so doing, setting in motion a period of city domination which lasted half a lifetime.

Incredibly, for someone who has been in the game throughout all that time, Totten was present at his first Dundee derby since 1964 on Wednesday night - when he could be forgiven for thinking nothing had changed with Dundee's 3-0 win.

It is not that he never came into contact with success at Tannadice, in particular when he was assistant manager at Ibrox, but just that the Brockville boss never had the opportunity again to watch the two teams lock horns in the flesh.

At the all-seater Dens Stadium - a painful monument to the SPL decision-making processes which have helped to condemn Totten's Falkirk to the First Division in each of the last three years - he was bowled over by what he saw.

Refreshingly, he saw signs, in Dundee's blend of talented and experienced foreigners and promising Scots, of a team which deserved to retain the public it is winning back in a city where a generation was lost to their rivals.

'The foreign players add skill and the blend of players from home and abroad has produced a spirit in the Dundee side which seemed to feed off the terrific atmosphere,' he told Soccernet.

'Tactically, Dundee handled the change from 3-5-2 to 4-4-2 well, and I thought Georgi Nemsadze was just brilliant as their playmaker. Ivano Bonetti is clearly a very experienced performer in the middle too - then there's the strikers. 'Fabian Caballero and Juan Sara also showed they have real quality, while the domestic players like Shaun McSkimming, who I managed at Kilmarnock, looked to have matured no end as footballers.

'United had their share of skill and talent, too, up front with the Cameroon player, Mvondo Atangana, and the overall mix made for tremendous entertainment. 'It was a real no-holds-barred occasion and it was tough for Stuart Dougal to referee. But Dundee won with good goals and, while the McLean era has been fabulous for United, it seems the pendulum has swung back.'

Totten felt for those in the dug-out, but believes he is every bit as bad as Dario Bonetti, who spent the latter part of the match watching from the stands. 'The game means so much, if you don't get het up there must be something wrong. 'Dundee controlled themselves well despite the hype about indiscipline.

'I'm envious of the stadia clubs like Dundee and Dunfermline have - I went through the move from Muirton to McDiarmid with St Johnstone and saw how it can galvanise a team,' he added. Whether Falkirk can get their new stadium up in time to meet the spring SPL deadline - that's if Totten's team can out manoeuvre big-spenders Livingston or Ayr - remains uncertain.

But the raw teenager who made such a big impression way back in the days of the Fairs Cup is not so short in the tooth that he can't spot a decent thing when he sees one - as he found when he returned to derby viewing this week.