DUNDEE'S players will train as normal this morning, their pre-season preparations continuing ahead of their opening fixture of the campaign against Brechin City in 12 days' time.

Every sprint, pass and header should be geared towards that Ramsdens Cup tie at Glebe Park, yet the Dens Park squad could be forgiven should their minds wander to an alternative challenge.

By the time they traipse from the pitch at the end of their session today, it is entirely plausible that the Hampden meeting of the SPL clubs will have broken up, a decision having been taken over the identity of Club 12. Anxious enquiries will be made – "Have you heard anything, gaffer?" – and phones checked as the players endeavour to divine whether they, and not Dunfermline Athletic, will be the club invited to join the top flight in the wake of Rangers' liquidation.

The feeling around the club is that Dundee deserve to be the beneficiaries of this sorry saga, even if some might smile wryly at an outfit which have twice been in administration themselves profiting from the fiscal recklessness of another. Nevertheless, Scot Gardiner was an unequivocal advocate on Saturday, the club's chief executive describing the situation as "an open and shut case" and claiming that the SPL rules support his contention. It is difficult to argue. Either way, an immediate decision must be taken so that both teams can prepare for their respective campaigns, but at what point does it become too late?

"We're preparing at the moment as a first division club and concentrating on challenging at the top of that division," insisted Rab Douglas, the experienced goalkeeper refusing to be drawn on the prospect of promotion. "If you do what Ross County did last year you've earned the right and, unless we're told otherwise, we can't do anything else.

"If it turns out we're in the first division we've just got to go and try and win it. That's what we've been told and that's the way we are training but, for a first division club, we gave not a bad account of ourselves against United."

While true to a degree, the evidence of the 3-0 defeat on Saturday suggests the Dens Park side will require extensive renovation should they be expected to compete at a higher level. But, although Barry Smith grudgingly confessed to having discussed with his board the potential for such surgery, he cannot act until confirmation is received one way or another.

"Without a doubt, it's dragged on too long," said Douglas. "At the moment we're training with a first-division squad and we'd need to add to it for either league but, at the moment, I'd imagine Barry will be looking for first-division players because we're a first-division club. Unless we're told otherwise, we can't do anything else."

Dundee certainly competed well on Saturday, their experienced starting XI stoically enduring the loss of a second-minute goal – Jon Daly stooping to head in a Willo Flood free kick – to bite and scratch their way back into the contest before a handful of changes exposed an alarming lack of depth. The loss of a further two goals in the closing 10 minutes, both again scored by the United captain, gave the scoreline a more realistic hue.

The accompanying chant of "we want Dundee up" from the United fans might have been mischief-making but it contained more than a kernel of truth. After all, this derby attracted an astonishing attendance of 10,121 and demonstrated that there remains a thriving football constituency amid the current fug of despondency; one predicated on rivalry and competition.

Indeed, as much as those in tangerine revel in the notion of their city rivals being "doon for life", many will quietly appreciate the financial benefits – and the frisson of excitement – that at least three meetings a season would bring.

"I think the city has been starved of it and this maybe shows there's life outside the Old Firm," agreed Douglas. "I live up here and this is what it's all about, playing in derbies in front of full houses. It's rivalry at its best."