Darren Jackson is looking for the “real” Dundee United to turn up when they face Kilmarnock at Tannadice on Saturday.
The last time the two sides met, it was a Friday night to forget for the Tangerines at Rugby Park as they slumped to defeat, producing a poor performance.
Now, Jackson is determined there will be no repeat this weekend.
The United coach said: “The last game against Kilmarnock was very disappointing.
“Fortunately, we cannot say that too often about the boys in too many games.
“But they know they let themselves down in that one.
“It was just a lacklustre performance. We gave them too much time on the ball and too much room.
“It’s not about revenge, it is about going out and playing the way we know we can play.”
If United can beat Kilmarnock and other results go their way, then the Tangerines will return to the top of the Premiership table on Saturday night.
Jackson admitted that while that would be pleasing, nothing is won in November and Celtic are still overwhelming favourites to take the title.
He said: “It’s nice to be at the top but you don’t get anything for it just now.
“But when you look at the table and see yourself at the top of the league, it is a massive confidence boost.
“So it would be nice to get a result and if it takes us back top for a wee while, then that would be great.”
He added: “Celtic should win the league. Everyone expects them to do that.
“We are not looking at that, we are just taking things and it is a boring old saying game by game.
“You cannot look too far ahead because we were doing well and then we lost three away league games in a row which is disappointing.
“So as I said, we will just take it one game at a time.
“We are just in November so title races don’t even come into our mind.”
Meanwhile, Jackson revealed that United will be without the services of hamstring injury victim Mario Bilate for at least another fortnight.
He said: “Bilate is coming on but he’ll still be another couple of weeks.
“You want all your players fit but unfortunately he’s not yet.
“There’s no point rushing because he want him to be fine when he does come back, especially when the surfaces are getting a little bit heavier.
“So you’ve got to watch.
“He’s had a scan which the physio is happy enough with.
“He’s running but we’ve just got to make sure he’s right.”