Dundee United goalie Cammy Bell has spent most of his career as a Premiership player.
But he admits the admiration he has for those plying their trade at Championship level is huge.
And he believes, when it comes to approach and application, Scotland’s second tier is a shining example to professional footballers everywhere.
It’s why he knows you have to be on the top of your game every week to keep winning matches.
Bell will be between the sticks against Falkirk at Tannadice and, while those watching will expect a harder game than United got when Dumbarton visited last week, he feels every fixture in this division is equally tough.
“I’ve played in both leagues, the Premiership and the Championship, and the competitive edge in this league is at a really high level,” he said.
“In this one you’ve got guys who are working to try to get three points every minute of every game.
“There is maybe that bit more quality in the Premiership but in this league there can be harder games because everyone is dogged and willing to work hard.
“If you’ve got that and a little bit of quality it will shine through — and we have.
“But if you are not willing to work hard in this league, you will not win any games.
“That’s why the manager is always telling us the hard work has to come first, because if we do this we also have that bit extra which will give us the win.”
Bell knows that combination will be necessary if United are to make it three league wins in a row and six unbeaten in all competitions when Peter Houston’s Bairns come calling.
“They’re a very consistent team, they have been for two or three years now, so they know how to win games in this league.
“We know it will be different to the opposition we face most weeks and they’ll come at us more than some teams do.
“We’ll face different tasks and problems. So we’ve looked at where they’ve got their strengths and also their weaknesses that, hopefully, we can exploit.
“We’ve been working on that in training this week.
“All being well, we can put that into practice and it will see us collect the three points.”
The last month or so has seen United’s season take off and, even though they went down 3-1 when the teams last met in mid-September, the 30-year-old believes signs that was on the cards were evident that evening.
“It was a good performance in general down there but, if you look at the goals in that game, they were very sloppy.
“They were poor goals to lose and it was what ultimately lost us the game but there wasn’t much in it at all.
“I felt as if we did have a good performance that night but, if you let in goals like that, you are going to lose games.
“We’ve worked hard as a team in training and in games to rectify those mistakes and I think we are in a better place as a team this time.”
Few would argue with that and Bell believes what now looks a strong rearguard has played its part in the team climbing up to second in the table, just three points behind leaders Hibs.
“I think we really have gelled over the last two or three weeks and developed an understanding, especially at the back.
“We now know the strengths and weaknesses of each other and that’s a great thing to have. If you can get a solid back four, then you can develop as a team and I feel we now have.
“We also have a couple of guys who are close to coming back from injury, so it will soon be difficult for the manager to pick a team and that’s a good headache for him to have.”
This article originally appeared on the Evening Telegraph website. For more information, read about our new combined website.