Blair Spittal insists Dundee United’s players are ready to defy the odds and knock Hibs out of the League Cup again.
The Tangerines go to Easter Road for their quarter-final clash tonight on the back of a terrific win in the Premiership over Ross County on Saturday but are still viewed as underdogs.
The Hibees grabbed an important victory themselves at the weekend, beating Championship promotion rivals Rangers.
That result on Sunday has confirmed Hibs as favourites, with some bookies offering odds as long as 5-2 against for an away win tonight despite United being from a division above their hosts.
However, Spittal insists Mixu Paatelainen’s men are confident that they can repeat the feat of a year ago when they travelled to Leith in the same tournamant at the same stage and won a penalty shootout after a dramatic 3-3 draw.
Asked if it bothered him that Hibs are being tipped to reach the semi-finals, Spittal replied: “I think we are just concentrating on ourselves and not on what other people are saying.
“We are confident inside the camp that we can go into the Hibs game and get the right result to reach the semis.
“We went there last year in what was another difficult tie and got the win in the end.
“We know it will be hard but we are also confident that we can get through.
“Hibs did play well against Rangers but, really, we are only concentrating on ourselves.
“It is still pretty early in the season and there’s a chance to get a good cup run going.
“We had a taste of the final last season against Celtic and we are looking to go one better this time if we get there again.”
The 19-year-old midfielder also feels United did enough in their 1-0 success against the Staggies to show they are not feeling any self-pity due to their bottom spot in the table.
Spittal added: “The performance against Celtic wasn’t good enough so we had to show a reaction against Ross County and I think it was the right reaction.
“We just couldn’t afford to feel sorry for ourselves.
“Obviously we were delighted to get the win.
“Considering the position we are in we can’t get too far ahead of ourselves and we know that.
“We have to go on a run of results and we had to start somewhere and hopefully it was Saturday’s game.
“We have been working on tactics going into every game and I think we have seen a steady improvement that we can take into the cup
“We have been working on the structure of the team and I think, under the new gaffer, we are beginning to get the benefit of that hard work.
“We are a confident team and we know we have players in our dressing room who, when things are hard, are able to dig us out of this position we are in.”