AS if poor old Dundee were not feeling vulnerable enough in the wake of a pasting at the hands of their nearest neighbours, Stuart Armstrong has sprinkled salt into their wounds in the most delicate of fashions.

A polite fellow known to take his studies as seriously as his soccer, the Dundee United midfielder is not the type to plant a tangerine flag at the top of The Law and shout the odds to the city below. Rather, he has his own way, unless we are reading between the lines incorrectly, of offering an appraisal of precisely what Dundee brought to the table as the Tayside derby made a most welcome return to the calendar.

Sunday's game, you see, was not quite as hectic as he had expected. He suspects the Dens Park side may now be feeling a little "disheartened" ahead of a quickfire trip to Tannadice in the third round of the League Cup tomorrow night.

Armstrong has also made it clear he believes Jackie McNamara's side could easily have won by more than the handsome 4-1 scoreline that left the good people of Dens Park crying into their onion pies. There was, Armstrong says, a stage of the match in which he believed United would put the ball in the net every time they crossed the halfway line.

The former Scotland Under-21 captain is too smart to predict certain victory when the sides go back into battle tomorrow night, but anyone paying close attention to his reflections on the weekend can only believe in one possible outcome.

"I think they [Dundee] will be disappointed by the performance and keen to make amends," said Armstrong, who came off the bench just before the hour to make his return from an ankle injury. "They will probably be a little disheartened as well, though, because they have been doing well lately and enjoyed a good run of games.

"Maybe their confidence has taken a bit of a knock, although they will be looking to get back on track. When I was on the pitch in the second half, I thought we had a chance of scoring every time we went forward. Perhaps we could have had more goals to our name.

"It was a great afternoon. The game wasn't as frantic as I thought it would be. It was good to get a goal in the first half and they needed to chase the game in the second, so that opened it up. We took advantage of that."

Dundee had, indeed, being doing well before United came to visit. They had gone eight games unbeaten in all competitions. Indeed Celtic travelled to Dens Park and would have left empty-handed were it not for a deflected shot from Leigh Griffiths, while United would have been forgiven for entering enemy territory with a certain degree of trepidation. Armstrong claims they did not pay the slightest bit of attention to what Paul Hartley's side had been up to, though.

McNamara's band are, of course, top of the SPFL Premiership. They are having a pretty good time of it themselves. "I don't think we took too much notice of their form," he said. "There had been a lot of talk about them and how they were playing exciting football.

"They obviously had a good performance against Celtic, but we just tend to look at ourselves and how we can create chances and focus on our game. It has been an excellent start for us this season because, sometimes, we can be slow starters. To be top of the table after seven games is brilliant and, now, we have another good game in the cup to look forward to."

Talk of setting out one's stall to win a cup may still be something of a sore point for United's players, though. It is only a matter of months since they were widely fancied to defeat St Johnstone in the Scottish Cup final at Celtic Park and fell flat on their faces.

Armstrong was almost inconsolable that afternoon. Uncharacteristically, he refused to speak to waiting journalists as he instead rushed on to the team bus and away from the east end of Glasgow.

He is back on the best of terms with the media now, of course, but he is reluctant to say too much about that disappointment galvanising the team as they bid to pick up some silverware this season.

"I think everyone was very disappointed by that particular game, but it is a new season and that has gone now," he said. "We are just focusing on looking forward rather than back."