Dundee United boss Micky Mellon feels their achievement in reaching fifth spot in the Premiership has gone almost unnoticed.
The Tangerines’ 2-0 win over Kilmarnock at Tannadice last night moved them on to the 24-point mark after 19 games.
Mellon’s men now have only Rangers, Celtic, Hibs and Aberdeen above them in the table.
That is a terrific return for a team of top-flight newcomers but Mellon believes United’s history and tradition may be working against them when it comes to recognition of that feat.
He said: “We are delighted to be fifth.
“Sometimes people can overlook that because they look around this stadium and they think of the past and think Dundee United should be up there.
“Fine, we embrace those demands but in reality we are just out of the Championship.
“If it were any other team coming up from the Championship (and sitting fifth) people would maybe say: ‘Wow.’
“But they look at our history.”
Strikers on target
United’s win came courtesy of two first-half goals from first Marc McNulty then Lawrence Shankland.
That made the victory extra special for Mellon.
He added: “They are both very clever players, who are well schooled and they enjoy playing alongside each other.
“As much as possible we want to try and do that but we have to be respectful of the opposition we are up against sometimes and we can’t play with two up.
“But we did that tonight and it was great to watch.
“I love watching wide men and strikers linking up like that. I am old-fashioned like that but to see it was pleasing.
“Yes, it was special to see both my strikers scoring.
“What I will say is that they have suffered at times because they play well as a pair but we have felt we have wanted some defensive solidity which meant that did not allow us to have two strikers and wide men in the team.
“But we’ve worked hard on being solid and the boys delivered on that. We’ve scored two good goals and we could have scored more.
“We are up to where we are up to but we won’t take our foot off the gas. We want to keep moving forward and trying to get results.”