Now that he is clear of suspension at last, Paul McMullan believes he is due his Dundee United team-mates a big performance in Inverness this afternoon.
The winger’s sending off against Brechin for simulation kept him out of the side for the calamitous clashes with Falkirk and Morton.
The former Dunfermine man was helpless for those two but is determined to make an impact now.
“I feel as though I owe the boys one,” he said.
“We were 4-0 up and coasting against Brechin and then it turns into a difficult last half an hour because I’ve been stupid.
“You do look at things over the season – such as the 6-1 Falkirk game – and think you cost the team a bit because you were suspended.
“If I get back in and get a chance, I definitely want to make it up to them.
“I felt absolutely helpless watching the Morton game.
“Any time you’re out for any reason, you just want to get out there and help the boys.
“We’re quite close in the dressing-room. You don’t want to see anyone down or anything like that.
“It’s never great watching from the stand especially when it’s my own doing. It’s very frustrating.”
McMullan doesn’t believe being labelled a diver would be fair on him.
“I think it was maybe blown out of proportion a bit to be honest,” he said.
“I did get another booking for diving earlier in the season but it can be exaggerated.
“The manager understands where I’m coming from. I’m a player who runs at high speed and sometimes there’s late tackles so that’s what can happen.
“Even some of the best players in the world go down. But what you’re trying to do is just avoid a tackle.
“The referees have got their job to do. If they think they have to make a decision then you have to accept that.”
McMullan was the match-winner against Caley Thistle in the Highlands at the start of the season. A lot has changed since – for both teams.
“We played them up there earlier in the season when the boys were flying,” he said.
“We won so we’ll have a good feeling going back up there.
“But they’ve got going now and are difficult to beat.
“They’ve had a lot of clean sheets so we know we’ll have to work hard to get goals against them.
“We want to go there and give something back to the fans for what’s been a difficult few weeks.
“We want to keep the pressure on St Mirren. The result is the big thing, but obviously a performance would be nice as well for our travelling supporters.”
McMullan didn’t want to go into too much detail about the post-match debrief following Saturday’s loss. It’s fair to say the importance of an emphatic response today hasn’t been lost on the players, though.
“I don’t want to say too much about the meeting the players had with the manager,” he said. “We spoke among ourselves
“It obviously stays in-house. A few boys spoke and basically just said things have got to be better. We can’t settle for that.
“It’s all about bouncing back and we’ve got quality within our dressing-room.
“It’s been a tough run for us of late.
“We know ourselves that last week wasn’t good enough.
“So we’ll be itching to put it right come Saturday kick-off.
“It’s no excuse that we’ve got a lot of new boys trying to gel, who’ve come in recently or before.
“Everyone goes through a wee spell whereby things don’t always click but I’m sure we’ll come through the other side stronger.”
McMullan hasn’t given up on catching St Mirren, despite the fact United now trail the Buddies by 11 points.
“It’s definitely still possible,” he insisted.
“We’ve still to play them at Tannadice and we’ve got a game in hand over them as well.
“If you look at it and break it down, it’s not that many points.
“But we must have it a really good run between now and the end of the season.
“That’s on our back. We think if we can do that there will be opportunities so there’s no way we’re giving up.
“At the end of the day, you never know how St Mirren are going to be over the next few weeks.
“When the gaffer first came in here, I think we won seven and drew one which shows we can go on a run.
“I firmly believe we’ll go and put together another such run to put pressure on St Mirren at the top.”
