By Ian Roache

NEW SEASON, new start is the mantra for Dundee United captain Barry Robson as he looks forward to playing again.

Robson’s summer break has been considerably longer than the rest of his Tannadice teammates, having missed the final four games of the SPL campaign.

A spate of red and yellow cards for the midfielder made it impossible for manager Craig Levein to risk fielding his star man in case he picked up the additional caution that would carry him over the disciplinary threshold.

Robson, therefore, sat out matches against Inverness Caley Thistle, St Mirren, Falkirk and Motherwell.

That time on the sidelines was not wasted, however, as it allowed him a period of sober reflection.

“It feels like ages since I last played because I missed the final month of the season,” said Robson.

“What happened is all forgotten about and hopefully this year I can stay clear of suspension.

“I learned a lot from it and it has happened to a lot of other players in the past as well, but missing games is not nice and you feel you have let your team-mates down.

“It was disappointing but it’s gone now. It is time to move on and try to make things good again.

“It is a fresh season and we go into it with fresh heads and fresh legs so it is exciting.

“That is one of the good things about football—you start over again in the league. You also get back in all the cups again and everyone has plenty to look forward to.”

The Tangerines kick off their 2007-08 campaign on August 4 with an intriguing meeting with Aberdeen.

Although United welcome Spanish superstars Barcelona to Tannadice only a few days beforehand, Robson and his colleagues are fully focused on that Dons game.

They have been notoriously slow starters in recent years but Levein has been working to get them primed for the opening day and Robson aims to hit the ground running.

“Aberdeen is a great game to start the campaign off with and our aim has to be to make a quick start because we haven’t done that recently,” Robson said.

“I don’t like making statements about what we are trying to achieve, I much prefer to take things one week at a time and see where that takes us.”