Dundee United defender Mark Durnan has thanked the fansĀ for the leading role they have played in maintaining the club’s excellent home record.
The Tangerines have lost only once at Tannadice in the league this season on their own park and that was to champions-elect Hibs when they had only 10 men.
That has left them with the best home record in the Championship and Durnan believes the supporters can take a lot of credit for that.
He feels the patient, educated manner in which they have stayed behind the side even as they struggled to break the opposition down has been really helpful to the players.
Now Durnan and his mates will ask for the same again this afternoon when they face second-placed Falkirk in a match United have to win if they are to have a realistic chance of beating the Bairns and Morton to the coveted runners-up spot.
āI think the fans have been right behind us and we’re grateful for that,ā said Durnan, whose goal eight minutes from time gave the Tangerines a 1-0 victory over Peter Houstonās men back on October 29.
āAt home, they have seen a few teams come and sit in and make it difficult for us.
āThat was the case when we last played at home against Ayr.
āEven in that match, though, the fans were patient.
āI think thatās a big reason why we have been decent at Tannadice this season ā they have not been on our back.
āThey have stuck with us and we have come on strongly at the end of some games with their backing.
āThe support at home has been really good and I donāt think it will be any different for this match.
āIām not sure what Falkirkās game plan will be but they do have good attacking players and can be positive.
āWe just need to make sure that we take advantage of being at home and be on the front foot.
āOur away record hasnāt been good enough but hopefully we can kick on both home and away between now and the end of the season.
āWe have six games left and four are at home, where Tannadice seems to have brought the best out of us this season.ā
The party line at Unitedās St Andrews training base all week has been to be positive and not dwell on what was a hugely disappointing 4-2 loss down at Queen of the South last Saturday.
Durnan is certainly buying into that, saying: āWe have looked at that match but we are also trying not to look too much at it, if that makes sense.
āWe are trying to remain positive.
āItās a balancing act because you need to look at where you have gone wrong but also keep the confidence up for a big game.
āItās the old story of not getting too high when you are winning or too low when you are losing.
āOur destiny is in our hands.
āWe know Saturday was disappointing but we need to put that behind us.
āThis is a massive match against Falkirk because if we win we will be right behind them with a game in hand.
āWe feel we still have promotion to look forward to.
āThatās our aim and it has never changed all season.ā
The Tangerines were far too soft down at Dumfries and need to add some steel to their play ā especially at the back ā if they are to come away from this game with three points.
Durnan added: āWe have lost a game and conceded poor goals but we can try to put that aside and not make those errors this Saturday.
āIf we can do that then we will have a good chance.ā
United boss Ray McKinnon is poised to hand a debut to midfielder Scott Allardice, who just turned 19 last week.
The Tangerines have three major injury doubts over goalkeeper Cammy Bell, midfielder Willo Flood and striker Thomas Mikkelsen, who scored both Unitedās goals against the Doonhamers.
Bell and Mikkelsen failed to complete 90 minutes at Palmerston, while Flood did last the whole match but took a knock.