Blair Spittal says the Dundee United players believe they can rescue their season as long as they continue to show the desire and determination exhibited in a fighting 3-2 Scottish Cup quarter-final victory against Ross County at the Global Energy Stadium.
The 20-year-old midfielder, who supplied the cross for Billy Mckay’s dramatic winner, has been one of the club’s top performers in recent weeks.
County’s position looked impregnable when they led 2-1 with 30 minutes to go after a Liam Boyce opener and a Brian Graham penalty.
But despite having Mark Durnan sent off for a last-man challenge on Graham, United not only levelled the scores with Henri Anier’s second of the tie, but went on to book their place in the semi-finals thanks to a brave diving header from Mckay a minute from time.
Spittal said: “Everybody believed we could get through to the semi-final.
“It was a big chance to lift our season a bit.
“It hasn’t been the best but we are absolutely delighted to get through.
“We were disappointed with Wednesday night’s performance against Aberdeen.
“It was way below the standard we had set over the past couple of months so it was all about putting that right.”
He added: “We had a couple of setbacks but the desire was there from everyone to bounce back, especially with 10 men towards the end of the game.
“I thought we had that extra belief and thankfully Billy’s goal put us through to the semi.”
Spittal says the players are confident they can climb out of their present predicament.
“We are fully confident we can go on a run in the league now and hopefully we can also get through to the cup final,” he said.
Looking ahead to Friday night’s match against Motherwell at Fir Park, he added: “It will be a difficult game but we are looking forward to it.
“After this performance we are fully confident we can get the three points.”
County midfielder Jackson Irvine was bitterly disappointed at losing to 10 men for the third time this season.
County had already lost to Hearts and Aberdeen in similar circumstances.
He said: “It’s not good enough, we need to be more professional. We need to defend better, everybody is extremely frustrated and disappointed.
“But fair play to Dundee United for kicking on with 10 men and winning the game but it’s not good from our point of view.”
Irvine admitted he was anxious about the number of goals County were conceding.
He said: “Scoring goals has never been an issue in this team. It’s the goals at the other end of the park that seem to be causing us all the problems.
“Scoring two goals at home that should be enough to win a tie, especially against 10 men.”
However, Irvine says the County players can now fully focus on Sunday’s League Cup final against Hibernian.
He said: “We can turn our focus on the final now. It has obviously been in the back of people’s minds for the last few weeks.
“We did have a good performance in midweek at Kilmarnock and I thought for 60 minutes again today we were excellent. We just need to take as many positives as we can into the final.”