Again even though I was young I still have vivid memories of the Final as I was playing in a 5 a side tournament in a local Secondary school right up until Kick off. I dashed home just in time to catch the last hour of the game on the Radio. Fantastic, never won a trophy then we win the same one two years on the trot, at the same ground and by the same score 3-0. It will be sad to see Dens Park go as I think it holds fonder memories for us than it does the other lot. Again I have chosen to describe the triumph with words from the Mangers Autobiography.

So almost a year after that win at Dens we were back again in an attempt to lift the League Cup for a second time. Again the Scottish League Management Committee had agreed to the game being played away from Hampden to suit the Fans. Again it was at Dens Park and we were asked to cross the road for a match which had a 24,700 capacity after improvements at Dens had reduced the size of the ground from the year before. This time of course, we were the team who had been made favourites by the Bookies. We were the team expected to win this city clash.

But with Dundee still in the First Division everyone looked to us to win again. I felt uneasy about that. I have never been comfortable in a situation where so much is expected from us. It is probably because of the self doubts which afflict me so frequently, and which still hit me even though I feel deep down that I have proved myself a success as a manager. Davie Dodds, another of our local boys was the only fresh face to come into the team from the previous year. The line-up which faced Dundee was Mc Alpine, Holt, Kopel, Phillip, Hegarty, Narey, Bannon, Payne, Pettigrew, Sturrock, Dodds. The substitutes were Billy Kirkwood and Derek Stark.

It was predictable that there would be no easy beginning for us. "Derby" games rarely throw up matches which are one sided. You can get them in occasion but in the main, these are games where the form book can be tossed aside. It was a factor which was gnawing at me most as we prepared for the match. And even during the first half when we failed to dominate as we should have done the doubts still bit into my mind. Then a minute before the half-time whistle we got a break we needed to settle the players and myself. Paul Sturrock sent in across and Davie Dodds was there to finish it off with a header to give us a half-time lead and to leave Dundee pondering at half time what might have been if the whistle had gone that 60 seconds or so earlier. It would have been a psychological boost for them if they could have held out till the interval. Instead we were the team who were lifted at half time. It's amazing how games can hinge on moments like that - confidence boosting moments which can come at crucial times in a match.

In the second half Paul Sturrock scored another two goals. each of them following headers from Paul Hegarty which had left the Dundee defence in trouble. These were more than enough to give us the Cup for the second time.