My first time standing in the Provost Road end at Dundee's Dens Park was a baptism of fire as it was a match versus Dundee United in August 1989. Dundee won the match 4-3 and during the riotous celebrations I was thrown a couple of rows down and trampled on but I cared not a jot as I had just witnessed my team come back from a two-goal deficit against the bohemian upstarts across the road.
 The Provost Road end was shaped as a semi- circle behind the goal. This meant it was linked to the Main Stand and South Enclosure (or Derry), which run length- ways along the park, and was separated from them by wire fences only. This set up tended to give added spice to big matches! The Provie had won the affections of the Dens Park faithful long before the 4-3 game however. While the Derry was (and to an extent still is) more the preserve of the young and more vocal the Provost Road end was more for your thinking man. The Provie also had the added advantage of being the part of the stadium furthest away from United's Tannadice Park, which faces our Dark Blue theatre of football across Tannadice Street.
The Provost Road end had seen numerous great occasions in its 100-year existence. There was the 39 game undefeated home run from February 1908 to April 1911, at this time the Titanic was still sitting in a shipyard in Belfast.
 The late forties and early fifties was undoubtedly the boom time for the Provie as it played its part in producing the bumper crowds of the time to watch one of the finest Dundee sides in history. This must have been a great time to watch the club as why else would 40,000 turn out to watch the likes of Raith Rovers? No offence.
The Provie's peak was behind it but there would be more to come in the early sixties, a time where Dundee FC were no respecters of a team's talent or stature and where teams would leave Dens with their tail between their legs. The thousands upon thousands of bonnet wearing Dundonians who would roar their team on from behind the goal surely had a part to play in this, the greatest of times for the club.
 In the European Cup, Cologne had the honour of being the first continental side to face the wrath of the Provie- they lost 8-1. Sporting Lisbon, Anderlecht and AC Milan also capitulated in front of the great terracing that season. The late sixties and seventies saw the Provost Road faithful witness the great European and domestic cup runs which culminated in the all- Dundee League Cup final of 1980 which was held at Dens Park. That occasion saw the aforementioned upstarts triumph 3-0. This period saw Dundee, roared on by the Provie, overturn a 4-2 aggregate deficit against Cologne in the last 15 minutes of the match with former Chesterfield boss John Duncan netting a hat- trick. Milan came again and again were defeated in front of the Provost Road crowd.
 Since the 1980 final the once proud Provost Road end went into a sad, slow decline as if to mirror the on park slide at the exact same time. There were few highlights from then on for the Provost Road regulars as they sat in the dilapidated and by now benched home from home, although defeating the Rangers side that got within a whisker of the 1992 European Cup Final 4-3 was surely one of them.
 The 1998-1999 season saw the Provie replaced by the current Bobby Cox Stand, named after the legendary captain of the championship winning side of 62, and where yours truly [used to be] a season ticket holder (row O, seat 147)[Season 2001-02]. 98-9 was also the season where Dundee fans looked on in horror as Dundee United fans occupied the former stronghold to which this article is dedicated to during a derby match. We were to have the last laugh however, as Dundee yet again recovered from a two-goal disadvantage in this match to equalise in the last minute through our Polish international Darius Adamczuk. I felt as though his celebrations in front of the United infected Provie was from not just a happy goalscorer, but from the whole of the bitter ex- Provie community around the world (the match was beamed live to Central America). The sight of the United fans edging nervously away from the rapturous Dundee fans in the more boisterous Derry as they proceeded to climb the thin wire fence that segregated the two sets of supporters was also quite fitting. The reaction of these United fans implied that they were not quite sure what they let themselves in for in this usually alien part of the ground to them. As the decline of the Provie echoed that of the team, so too does the gleaming new stand symbolise the recent upturn in fortunes of this grand old Scottish club. The disappearance of the old terracing has not dampened your average Dundee fans memories of the place. Indeed should the new 30,000 all seater arena (to be shared with you know who) is to be built, it is almost certain that the Dundee faithful will still sing "Walking down the Provie Road, Tae kick f*** out o United!" as loud as ever. The Provost Road End R.I.P. Aug 19th 1899- May 1999.