Jackie McNamara wants to finish a season he has labelled “difficult” on a high note by being a derby winner.
The Dundee United manager was reflecting upon a campaign that has seen his team hit dizzy heights only to fall flat from February onwards.
From being lauded and applauded they find themselves battered and bruised, with only two wins out of their last 17 matches going into tomorrow’s crucial home game against Dundee.
The roller-coaster ride has included everything from controversial player sales and their financial implications for McNamara himself to chairman Stephen Thompson’s pursuit of a personal interest in Australian club Newcastle Jets.
Some fans are disillusioned, while others are just desperate to see some hope for a brighter future as the Premiership campaign reaches its conclusion.
It hasn’t been a walk in the park for McNamara either, as he readily admitted.
In under a year, he has seen the club sell top stars Andy Robertson, Ryan Gauld, Stuart Armstrong and Gary Mackay-Steven.
To sign off, he wants to beat the Dark Blues then hope that Aberdeen can do the business against St Johnstone at Pittodrie.
That would mean United finishing in fourth spot and then waiting to cheer on Inverness Caley Thistle in the Scottish Cup final, with a win for the Highlanders over Falkirk next Saturday securing European football at Tannadice in July.
McNamara said: “For me, it has been difficult at times.
“If you had said to me at the start that you would be in a cup final (the League Cup final versus Celtic) I would have been pleased.
“However, with everything else that has happened it has been difficult and I don’t think many teams would cope with losing what we have lost.
“Losing Ryan and Andy in the summer and then losing the two boys in January had a big impact.
“My job is to make sure they are not missed but that has been the case from the first summer with the loss of guys like Johnny Russell, Jon Daly and Willo Flood and it has continued.
“In addition to the cup final we have won the same amount of league games as we did last season.
“If we beat Dundee we will have exceeded that, albeit we have lost more than we have drawn but when you look at the other teams around and see what has happened here we have done well.
“That’s over two years I have been here now and I inherited a lot of problems coming into the club in terms of the debt and the structure.
“I think the chairman came out the other day and spoke of a five-year structural plan for the club and we are ahead of schedule.
“My job has been made a lot harder with everything else that’s happened and for me personally I think I’ve learned a great deal, not on the football side but the off-field politics and stuff I shouldn’t have to deal with but it will make me stronger.
“I am four years in management now and would like to be in it for a long time and I am sure I will look back on the things I have dealt with as a valuable experience.”
It was put to McNamara that it was a shame that a season that held so much promise could end so flatly.
He replied: “It will only feel flat if we don’t finish with a win on Sunday.
“There is still an outside chance of getting fourth and possibly a European spot.
“If you had said at the start of the season that you would win one more game than you did last year in the league, get to the final of one cup and take Celtic to a replay at the advanced stages of another a lot of clubs would bite your hand off for that.
“But sometimes you can be victims of your own success.”