Paul McGinn may only be 24 but he has been in football long enough to know you can go from “hero to zero” all too quickly.
The Dark Blues travel to Perth to face St Johnstone today, with memories of Wednesday night’s famous derby victory over United still fresh in their minds.
However, McGinn acknowledged that the Dundee players cannot afford to rest on their laurels as they chase their top six dream.
And he used the example of United keeper Rado Cierzniak, who blundered badly at Dundee’s first goal, as a warning to his team-mates.
The full-back said: “You can go from hero to zero very quickly.
“Any time in football, you are only as good as your last game.
“You can be a good player all season and then have a howler.
“For instance, Cierzniak had a good spell but then he made that howler.
“So we know that if we fall at this final hurdle it would hurt.
“We have spoken about the boys down the bottom like Motherwell and Ross County, they will be scrapping for everything.
“They need the points big time so you would rather be playing the less desperate football, so to speak, up at the top end of the table.”
United could do Dundee a big favour this afternoon if they beat Hamilton, the Dark Blues would almost certainly have secured a spot in the top six no matter what the result is at McDiarmid.
However, McGinn insisted the Dundee players want to get there under their own steam.
He said: “We don’t want to have to turn to our neighbours to do us a favour.
“We would rather we did it ourselves.
“You don’t know what way United against Hamilton will go.
“Neither are in the best of form so it might be a scrappy affair.
“So it is up to us to try to get the result we need.”
McGinn admitted he was under no illusions just how difficult it will be against a St Johsntone side he rates highly.
He said: “They don’t have the best pitch with everyone saying it is a bit of a mess.
“That doesn’t really suit some of their players like James McFadden and Michael O’Halloran.
“But they have a lot of experience and there have been so many games where you have seen them grinding out results.
“I am usually up against O’Halloran, who is a handful.
“He is a quick, strong runner and good with both feet so I will really need to be on my game.”
While fully focused on St Johnstone, McGinn did quickly reflect on Wednesday night and how much it meant to the fans.
He added: “I have watched a bit of it back and the atmosphere was brilliant.
“It was really exciting and the crowd were going nuts!
“It’s definitely one of the highlights of my career especially coming off the back of the last derby.
“Even although I missed it, like the rest of the boys it hurt so it was great to get that monkey off our backs.
“At the end, the fans just couldn’t keep in their seats. It showed how much they cared.
“I was getting tweets from them saying they were watching it back and how much it meant to them.
“So I was delighted.”