Dundee United captain Sean Dillon wants the club to return to Europe to make up for lost time.
The Irishman is the most experienced continental campaigner at club, having featured five times in the Europa League icnce signing for the Tangerines in 2007.
His first match was against Greek side AEK Athens in 2010 and his last was against Russians Dinamo Moscow two years later.
Dillon believes the Tangerines should have been playing on the Euro stage more frequently than that and is determined to qualify this time around.
They have a great opportunity to get there, either by finishing third in the Premiership or staying in fourth and waiting to see what happens in the Scottish Cup.
They go into today’s hoem game against a revitalised Ross County side on the back of the disappointing defeast form Celtic that saw them lose the League Cup final, exit the Scottish Cup and suffer another loss in the league.
However, as he returns from the nasty angle injury he received in the clash with the Hoops at Hampden, Dillon is upbeat about United’s chances of salvaging a Europa League spot from what is left of the season.
He said: “Qualifying for Europe would be great because we haven’t done it often enough, in my opinion.
“It is an achievement when it happens and I just feel, certainly during my time here, that the club hasn’t been there as many times as we should have been.
“Personally, it has been nice to be involved when we have been there and it would be nice to do it all again.
“European matches are always great to be involved in.
“They are big nights for the fans and it kicks off your season on a high note.
“It also ends your season in a nice way.
“As a player, I have always wanted to finish the final game of the campaign in a manner that sends the supporters home happy and qualifying for Europe would help do that I think.
“We have a good chance of getting there and that’s a real positive after the last few weeks.
“We will be doing everything we can to ensure, after recent massive disappointments, that we finish off with a European place.
“As I said, that would be a real achievement for United.”
Dillon’s ankle was sliced open by the boot of Celtic defender Virgil van Dijk during the final.
He had the wound patched up only to go on and get sent off as the Tangerines went down 2-0.
He has been a mere spectator since then and sitting in the stand rather than running around the park hasn’t proved been easy for him.
He added: “The injury was a bad one.
“Adrenaline masked the pain for a while but on the Monday morning after the game it was really bad.
“I wasn’t able to do any training and that made it a long couple of weeks.
“I was back working with the lads on Tuesday and am feeling fine now.
“Mentally, though, the last couple of weeks have been absolutely draining for me.
“Apart from family stuff, it has been up there with the worst wee spells I could imagine.
“After getting sent off you want to get back playing as soon as possible to get it out of your system.
“But it has been a long wait.
“In the two Celtic matches I missed results didn’t go our way.
“I was down at Parkhead watching the lads on the Wednesday night in the Scottish Cup and then again on the Saturday in the league.
“It is tough sitting in the stand at the best of times because as a player it is frustrating not being able to help the lads out.
“But this was really difficult, although I am sure it was tougher for the boys who were out there.”
United have been a club in turmoil off the field this week.
A war of words between the board and ArabTRUST and the Federation of Dundee United Supporters’ Clubs flared up following a joint statement from the fans’ groups criticised how the club is being run.
Manager Jackie McNamara has done his best to keep the unrest from his players before such a crucial game and Dillon is focusing only on the football.
“It would be nice to bounce back after a bad few weeks,” he said.
“In the build-up to the final we were all desperate to play in that and then afterwards we were just as desperate to feature in the other games.
“We can only turn all that into a positive thing now by winning games again.
“We got a few days off and getting away from everything was good. I think the international break came at the right time for us.
“We won’t forget what happened over the last few weeks against Celtic but we are keen to push on now.”