Dundee United’s Jarek Fojut has more reason than most players to welcome the international break after this weekend’s fixtures, with his family set to join him from Poland.
The big centre-half has been a real success story since signing last month for Jackie McNamara’s side, quickly cementing his place at the heart of the Tangerines defence.
He is determined to help United continue their good start to the season by winning this afternoon against St Mirren in Paisley.
However, the 26-year-old is also relishing the prospect of being reunited with his beloved family again at the new home he has found with the help of his compatriot and team-mate Rado Cierzniak.
Fojut said: “I am bringing my whole family my wife, two kids and two dogs over during the break.
“It is good to have the time off to take care of all the things outside football and to properly prepare for the long season.
“I always say family comes first so it will be a big boost getting them over.
“Once you have them settled, you can just focus on your job. I have a house all sorted for them to come. I have had a lot of help from Rado as he has been here a while and others at the club.”
United, of course, have already won three out of their first four league games so far this season. That is a decent return in anyone’s book but Fojut says the Tangerines are hungry for another three points in Paisley before the break.
He said: “I don’t think anyone can take credit away from us as we have already won three games out of four. It is still a very good start to the season.
“But we will definitely be going to St Mirren to try to win the match.
“We will just take it game by game. You always want to wake up on Sunday morning knowing that you can go to training on the Monday, having won the game.
“So for me it doesn’t matter that there is an international break coming up, we still have to be determined to win the match.”
The only blip in United’s otherwise winning start to the season was the shock 6-1 hammering at Celtic Park.
However, Fojut insists that win, lose or draw, his focus always swiftly shifts to the next game.
He said: “It was good to get back to winning ways last Saturday. All the work you put in during the week is geared towards doing that. So the job was done and that’s what counts.
“To be honest, I try to forget about winning games or losing them as soon as possible.
“So I have forgotten about the Celtic game now. The sooner you do that it is better for you.
“However, I do not take defeats personally. It is all about getting back to hard work in training and winning again we did that last week against Ross County.”
With the exception of the Celtic game, United have been strong in defence so far, conceding only one goal in their other three games.
That is thanks to the new-look defence with Fojut, Callum Morris, Conor Townsend and Keith Watson forming a solid rearguard.
However, the Polish centre-half still sees a lot of room for improvement from the back four.
He said: “We seem to fit in well with one another. We are quite confident but we know there is still a lot of work in front of us to get even better.”
United will be without the injured Sean Dillon, Stuart Armstrong, John Souttar and Mark Wilson. St Mirren will be missing striker Steven Thompson.
nrobertson@thecourier.co.uk