Dundee United’s Michael Gardyne insists the defeat at Kilmarnock was not a reality check because everyone at the club already had their feet firmly planted to the ground.
The Tangerines’ strong start to the season, winning their first two games 3-0, had them being tipped by some pundits to be Celtic’s closest challengers for the SPL title.
However, like his manager, Gardyne stresses that speculation was just ”silly” and all the United players are concentrating on is one game at a time, starting with this weekend’s Tayside derby against St Johnstone in Perth.
He said: ”It wasn’t a great day at the office for us on Saturday. There weren’t a lot of positives to take from the game.
”We have had a look at the video and we will work as a squad this week to get it right for St Johnstone.
”However, we have picked up six points from our first two games, which is a better start than last season.
”But nobody in the dressing-room was getting ahead of themselves just two games into the campaign that would have been silly.
”No-one was getting too big for their boots, we were just keeping our heads down and working hard in training.”
United will face Saints without star winger Gary Mackay-Steven, who had a tidy-up operation on his knee on Tuesday.
Gardyne accepts the Scotland under-21 star will be a big loss but he believes there are players in the United squad ready and able to step up.
He said: ”There are boys on the bench who can come in and take Gaz’s place. We probably don’t have a straight replacement for him but we have boys who are good players and can definitely come in and do a job.”
United will play a Saints side who haven’t won in their last 13 competitive matches, but Gardyne is taking nothing for granted as the Tangerines look to bounce back strongly after the Kilmarnock defeat.
He said: ”We will probably take a lot of fans there and it is a big derby that we are looking forward to. There is no point looking back, we just need to concentrate on the St Johnstone game.
”They haven’t had the best of starts but they have a lot of good players and it is a derby. They didn’t have a great result at the weekend as well so they will be just as determined as us to pick up the points.”