Jim Goodwin insists Dundee United are ‘ready for the challenge’ of sealing their place in the top six – and a shot at European qualification.
United entered the international break off the back of a painful derby defeat to Dundee at Tannadice.
They have since had plenty of time to mull over what went wrong.
Goodwin believes his side were punished that day for self-inflicted mistakes.
But the United boss knows it’s now time for his side to refocus on their return to action against Ross County – and an opportunity to take a leap towards their top six goal.
“It was unfortunate that [mistakes] happened in such an important game for ourselves and the fans,” said Goodwin.
“But we can’t dwell on it now, we have to get ourselves back out there and put it right.
“We have learned the lessons from it, people make mistakes sometimes and there’s not a great deal you can do about it.
“Sometimes you make mistakes in this game and get away with it. Unfortunately on that occasion we didn’t.
“Players don’t go out there to deliberately do it, it’s human nature sometimes.
“Dundee punished us but it’s gone now, we’ve had a good week’s training and we’re looking forward now.
“We have the chance to go to Ross County and make amends this weekend so that’s what we’re aiming to do.
“We’re still in a good position with three games left until the split so we have to be ready for the challenge.
“Depending on how the games on Saturday go we could take to the field against County with the chance to go level with Hibs in third place.
“So we’ll do all our preparation, see what happens in the Saturday games then look forward to ours.”
Luca Stephenson
Meanwhile, there is good news for United on the fitness front, with on-loan Liverpool starlet Luca Stephenson – whom United are keen to sign permanently – having recovered from the head knock he sustained against Dundee.
Goodwin explained: “Luca had concussion so we have been following the protocols.
“He’s taken things easy for the last ten days and is doing non-contact training now.
“He’s been keeping himself ticking over and will be fine for this weekend.
“It was a really heavy clash, he was knocked out for a few seconds so his welfare had to come first.
“The medical team made the right call to look after him and get him off.”
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