Tony Docherty admitted he had thrown down the gauntlet to his Dundee players to make history at Tannadice.
The Dark Blues secured a vital 4-2 victory that moved them five points clear of rock-bottom St Johnstone thanks to a Jordan McGhee double and goals from Scott Tiffoney and Simon Murray, while Glenn Middleton and Kristijan Trapanovski netted for the hosts.
It was the first time Dundee had won at the home of their city rivals since 2004, with Docherty delighted his players responded to his challenge.
He said: “It was a typical derby, everything I expected it to be.
“We showed real determination, real resilience to see it out.
“It was a deserved three points, especially with so much riding on it.
“I challenged the players to go into the history books, becoming the first Dundee team to win at Tannadice in over 20 years.
“They stepped up to the plate and I’m hugely proud of them for doing so.
“There was a real challenge put in front of the players to get back into the pack, go five clear of St Johnstone and pull the other ones into it.
“But more than that, to answer up to that record of 21 years not winning it at Tannadice. That shouldn’t sit well with any Dundee fan, with any Dundee supporter. And they answered that today. They deserve a hell of a lot of credit for that.”
United boss Jim Goodwin did not pull any punches, describing his players’ performance as “unacceptable” and “embarrassing” as they missed out on the chance to leapfrog Aberdeen and go level on points with Hibernian.
A bad day for United was made worse by a late red card for substitute Emmanuel Adegboyega.
Goodwin said: “We lost the game in the opening 45 minutes. Some of our defending, individual mistakes, were just unacceptable in a game of this magnitude.
“Some harsh words were spoken at half-time. I could have easily made a number of changes.
“We will take all of the criticism that comes our way because it will be warranted.
“First 45 was embarrassing at times. We’ve got a lot of looking in the mirror to do, to be perfectly honest with you, to make sure we don’t ever have a repeat performance of that in the last eight games.”
Dundee’s Murray was struck by a vape thrown from the home stand in the first half, with Goodwin condemning the incident.
He added: “Yes, unacceptable, and I’m sure it will be looked at by the authorities. We don’t want to see that.”
