Dundee United’s Mark Millar admits he feared he was jinxed when it looked like his debut for the Tangerines was set to be postponed for a second time.
The former Falkirk midfielder has had to be patient since signing for the Tannadice outfit during the summer.
He was selected to make his long-awaited first start against Motherwell three weeks ago, only to see his dreams dashed when the game was called off just minutes before kick-off because of an electrical failure at Fir Park.
Millar won the nod for Saturday’s derby with the Dons at Tannadice and thought Lady Luck had deserted him once again with the Aberdeen team bus caught up in traffic chaos on the A90, which put the game in doubt.
He breathed a sigh of relief when the match finally went ahead after a delayed start and he hopes he has done enough to convince manager Peter Houston that he deserves another chance when United travel to Paisley to face St Mirren on Saturday.
He said: ”Obviously, you want to play as much as possible because nobody likes sitting on the sidelines. But I knew when I came here that I’d need to be patient.
”I was actually supposed to start the game at Motherwell, but that went off and then we had the international break.
”Then we saw what happened with Aberdeen travelling down and there was talk of the game maybe going off.
”I was starting to wonder if I was a jinx.
”I’ve had to wait to get a chance and I just want to take it now.
”We have a lot of quality players, so it was always going to be tough, but I felt I did OK and hopefully I’ve done enough to stay in.
”It was frustrating not to get a win because I felt we created enough chances to win the game.
”It gets us back on track again after a difficult few weeks for the lads.
”We have St Mirren next week, which will be tough after them losing to Celtic, but hopefully that’s us turned the corner now.”