Dundee United star John Rankin concedes that his side’s away form is starting to cost them dearly after another two points were dropped in midweek.
The Tangerines have been fairly imperious at home, apart from the pre-Christmas defeat to high-flying Aberdeen, but their results on the road have not been as clinical recently.
Wednesday night’s lacklustre draw at St Mirren means United have now only taken five points out of a possible 12 from their last four away games, and cost Jackie McNamara’s men the chance to climb into third spot in the Premiership table.
And Rankin reckons it is a problem United need to nip in the bud sooner rather than later or face dropping off the pace altogether.
“I don’t know how many times this season we’ve come away from home, concede a sloppy goal and then we need to score two or three to win games,” he commented.
“To be honest it’s not on and we have to stop that.
“We need to get back to basics and if we can keep clean sheets then we’ll always create chances to score.
“That performance the other night was not acceptable.
“Our away form of late hasn’t been up to scratch.
“We lost at St Johnstone and drew at Partick before this, so we need to start picking up wins on the road.
“Our home form has been pretty good I think we’ve only dropped five points all season but we need to start doing better away from home too and quite quickly.
“We’re creating chances but the other night, when we had a chance to turn the screw, we didn’t do enough to go on and win the game.
“That’s disappointing.
“At home if it goes to 1-1 we’re putting pressure on.”
United had chances to take all three points from Paisley in midweek but it wasn’t to be as they failed to build on their quick fire equaliser after going behind six minutes before the break.
“These nights happen from time to time,” Rankin continued.
“It was always going to be a difficult night.
“St Mirren got in front and we showed good character to come back into it but we just couldn’t get ourselves going.
“I don’t know if it was because it was a cold night or the atmosphere it was so quiet you could heard yourself breathe but it was difficult to get going.
“We struggled. We had a chance at 1-1 to get a win but I don’t think we made the goalkeeper work in the second half.
“Credit to St Mirren, they played well and had a lot of chances.”
After Wednesday’s draw, United boss Jackie McNamara suggested transfer speculation surrounding his players was no excuse for his team’s inability to record the victory, with talk that Gary Mackay-Steven could yet move to Celtic this month for a fee despite signing a pre-contract.
Midfielder Stuart Armstrong has also been linked with a move to Parkhead in the transfer window, although Rankin agrees with his manager.
“I don’t think the transfer speculation plays any part at all,” he concluded.
“When you cross the white line it’s all about getting three points and unfortunately we never got them the other night.
“We know that Gaz has signed a pre-contract and will be away in the summer but he’s still a Dundee United player and he’s looking to see what he can achieve between now and the end of the season.
“It’s unfortunate that’s come out this stage in the middle of the window as there is always going to be speculation on whether he’ll go this month or not.
“But he’s our player from what we can gather he’s going to stay until the end of the season.
“Hopefully he does and helps us mount a challenge on three fronts.”