Guy Demel believes the least Dundee United fans deserve from a torturous season that plunged to a new low at the weekend is a Scottish Cup final day-out.
The Tangerines must lift themselves for Saturday’s cup semi-final with Hibs at Hampden after Saturday’s shocking 2-0 league defeat by Inverness left them eight points behind second-bottom Kilmarnock and teetering on the brink of relegation.
Demel knows that the supporters are owed a big last four performance at the National Stadium.
He said: “We have to somehow try and win the Scottish cup semi-final against Hibs and create momentum again.
“Our fans deserve to be rewarded with a cup final.
“It would be good for the club if we could do that.
“A win in the semi-final could carry us right through the split games.
“We are aware that we may have to win five out of five games after the split but nothing is impossible until it is done.”
Former West Ham player Demel is under no illusions about the size of the task facing United in their battle to beat the drop.
He said: “We are running out of games and of course the players realise the seriousness of the predicament we now find ourselves in.
“It is a difficult situation for the club
“The gap to Kilmarnock and Hamilton in the table is very big as we enter the split.
“It won’t be easy for us and I am not going to lie it is a really big task for us to claw that gap back right now.
“We have five games left in the league season and we will need to see what happens.
“We will have to show real desire and concentration if we are to win all of those five games and help keep Dundee United in the Scottish Premiership.”
On Saturday’s crushing disappointment, Demel reflected: “We tried to do our best but the early goal from Inverness put us on the back foot.
“We could not find the solution to come back from that.
“We started the game with desire to score first but then we conceded an easy goal from our mistake and after that it was very hard.
“Inverness are a good football team and they passed the ball around well and we could not come up with the answers to pose them more problems.”