Cammy Smith insists it’s too early in the season to be talking about crunch games.
But the Dundee United striker doesn’t deny today’s tea-time trip to Falkirk is a big one.
The man who is on-loan from Aberdeen knows a lot will happen between now and next May, which is why he is not paying too much attention to the league table in these early weeks of the campaign.
But with one of the things he expects being the Bairns to be right in the promotion mix in the months ahead, he doesn’t disagree this could be the Tangerines’ biggest game to date.
“Falkirk are a consistent team. The last few seasons they’ve been up there challenging and I think it will be the same again this year,” said the 21-year-old.
“They might not have had as good a start but they will be right up there come the end of the campaign.
“So this could be one of the toughest challenges of the season and we need to be right up for it.
“It is still early days, really early days, and right now we just need to concentrate on ourselves and make sure we go there and give a good performance.
“But if we can get the points on the board from this one, we won’t be complaining.”
Today marks the start of a busy, not to mention important, period for Ray McKinnon’s men.
Tuesday sees them head for Morton in the quarter-final of the Betfred Cup and the pair will clash again in the league at Tannadice next week.
Eight days later comes what will be the game of the season so far in the Championship when United travel to fellow-promotion rivals and league leaders Hibs.
Smith, though, is not prepared to look any further ahead than events at the Falkirk Stadium.
“It’s always going to be each game as they come, that’s the right way to do thing.
“There are some big games ahead but we haven’t spoken about anything else but Falkirk and we won’t think about Morton on Tuesday until after this one. We will prepare properly for Falkirk and take care of that.”
And, for Smith, the immediate priority is forcing his way back into the starting line-up after being benched for last week’s dramatic events at Dunfermline.
He was still able to make a telling contribution as he came on to help his 10-man team withstand late Pars pressure before helping set up the final goal in the 3-1 success.
“I was disappointed not to start. Until last Saturday, I’ve played every game I’ve been available for and, hopefully, it was just a wee change sitting on the bench and I’m back in for this one.
“I respect the manager’s decision and I just need to get my head down and work hard to get back in the team because that’s what I’m here for, to play.”
By getting on he can say he was involved in the game that saw keeper Cammy Bell chalk up a world first by saving three penalties in one half.
That drew the attention but Smith believes the big thing United will take from it is the character shown.
“It was a good win in a crazy game I think. A lot’s been said about Cammy’s three penalty saves and he’s kept us in the game but, with a sending off with half-an-hour still to play, there was a lot still to do and we dug in and showed the other side to our game.
“We did it well and it was a great three points. Things were going against us but, if that happens, you can’t chuck it and we didn’t.”
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