Dundee United’s Ryan McGowan says Tuesday night’s battling performance against Inverness has defiantly answered any question marks raised about the character in the Tangerines’ dressing-room.
Those doubts had come on the back of two successive league defeats against Kilmarnock and then in the Tayside derby at Tannadice last Saturday when St Johnstone won 2-0.
It seemed there was every chance United could have slumped to three losses in a row on Tuesday when keeper Michal Szromnik was dismissed after just six minutes with Greg Tansey converting the resulting penalty for Inverness.
However, 10-man United more than held their own as the game progressed and received the reward for all their hard work when McGowan scored the equaliser with what was his first goal for Jackie McNamara’s side.
When asked if the gritty display sent out a message, the former Hearts defender said: “Yes, I think so. Obviously the fans were disappointed (about Saturday) but first and foremost the players were more disappointed than anyone.
“We knew it wasn’t good enough and we didn’t want a repeat of that against Inverness or for the rest of the season.
“It is not acceptable and I think we have bounced back from that with a good performance and we will take that into Saturday.
“We showed when we put our minds to it and give 100% workrate we are a good side and we can match anyone.
“Inverness are a good passing team and so are we but the pitch doesn’t help.
“It makes it more difficult to do that but we showed another side of our game against Inverness.
“We are delighted to get a point but feel aggrieved that we didn’t get the three.
“The boys showed great character after going down to 10 men so early on. It made it a real uphill task but I think if anyone had come into the game five or 10 minutes after kick-off they wouldn’t have realised we were down to 10 men.
“I was just delighted to get off the mark with such an important goal.
“It was one that I will cherish and I am looking forward to getting more for United.
“The focus now turns to Saturday’s game against Partick.”
After leaving Hearts, McGowan moved to play in China for a spell but he admitted the atmosphere and excitement of Tuesday night reminded him what he had missed about Scottish football.
He said: “I loved every minute of it and I thought the fans were terrific.
“They really got behind us and urged the team on.”
The draw with Inverness was, of course, vital for maintaining United’s dreams of European football next season.
McGowan has already sampled that with Hearts against Spurs and Liverpool and he would like nothing better than to experience it again with the Tangerines.
He added: “A club of our stature definitely wants to be in Europe next year.
“That’s what we will be aiming for between now and the end of the season.”