BILLY KING, the Dundee United winger, enjoyed his introduction to the Dundee derby despite Wednesday’s Betfred Cup defeat at Dens Park and hoped United could go on to win promotion to make them a regular occurrence next season.

King, the former Hearts and Rangers player, cancelled out Faissal El Bakhtoui’s opener with United’s first shot on target only for Paul McGowan to win it for Dundee in the second half. Amid the frustration of the cup exit, the player revealed the two recent cup ties have given everyone at Tannadice a taste for the derby occasions.

“It was two good games against them,” he said. “It was very physical and there was a lot of tackles flying in and the fans love that.

“It is good to play in and certainly one we want to play in regularly.

“It’s very fiery and the atmosphere is always brilliant. It’s been two games at Dens Park and we still need to play at Tannadice.

“It’s a typical derby, very frantic and it is just whoever gets the ball down tends to be the best. It was unfortunate for us this time but, fair play, Dundee kind of deserved it in the end.

“We’re obviously massively disappointed. All the lads are gutted in the changing room. I thought Dundee put on a lot of pressure in the first half at the start.

“Throughout the game we had short spells where we managed to get the ball on the ground and play between the lines but overall we are massively disappointed.

“It was two good goals to be fair but every game we play this season we want to win.”