“We believe we are a Premiership club but believing isn’t enough, we have to go and do it.”
Dundee are under no illusions how big a task remains in front of them as they head to Kilmarnock with a place in the Premiership at stake.
After two seasons in the Championship, manager James McPake says his side are ready to make the step back up to the top-flight.
With a 2-1 advantage heading into the second leg after a fine showing at Dens Park, the temptation might be to sit on their lead at Rugby Park.
However, McPake has urged his players to get the scoreline out of their minds and head to Kilmarnock targeting victory.
“We are going down there to win the game,” he said.
“That’s what we’ve been doing recently.
“Even in the Raith game we lost we had chances. And that’s the positive thing for this team.
“People say we might rue missing chances on Thursday but the one thing we guarantee is we create chances.
“I believe we will create and if we can take them we’ll be in a very good position.
“Our aim is to go there and try to win the game. Forget out Thursday and treat it like a cup final.”
He added: “If we put in the same performance, we win the game. Thursday’s performance was good and our performance levels have been really high.
“All I can ask is the players go down there and wear their heart on their sleeves. If it is a fight, then we are up for a fight like on Thursday.
“On the astroturf, we’ll get the ball down and play. We have good players and we have pace that can hurt them so same again.
“Play the game, forget everything going on around it, and we have the belief we can win the match.
“We want to win the two games.”
‘Credit to the players’
The Dark Blues head into the contest in good form, having lost just once in their last 11 matches.
On the road, too, they are unbeaten in six and have conceded just once, in a 1-1 draw at Inverness.
Normally the Premiership play-off final comes at the end of a gruelling Championship season, however McPake insists his players are just reaching their peak after the shortened campaign.
“With the quality and competition for places in the squad the players have really raised their game,” he said.
“That’s credit to the players.
“They are following everything we are trying to do and are working really hard.
“It’s been a difficult year with the lockdown and hard pre-season they had. I think you can see now they are looking really fit.
“They are strong and eager to get this club back to the Premiership.”
He added: “We are trying to take something off a Premiership team and that’s where the pressure comes.
“The pressure is on the Premiership team. Internally we create a pressure on ourselves because we want to get back to the top flight.
“We believe we are a Premiership club but believing isn’t enough, we have to go and do it.”
Extra-time and penalties
There is the prospect of extra-time and penalties should Kilmarnock lead by a single goal come the end of 90 minutes on Monday night.
Dundee, though, are well prepared for every eventually says the Dens boss.
“We have been practising penalties, even before the semi-final,” McPake added.
“It’s something you have to do. It’s part of the game in knockout football.
“Over the 12 days leading up to Raith we practised them every day. It’s important to do that.
“Hopefully we won’t need them but if it comes to that, it comes to that.”
Team news
With four days between the two games, fatigue isn’t something the Dark Blues boss is worrying about in the second leg.
And he says he’ll have a full squad to choose from should he wish to make changes.
Christie Elliott was forced off in the first leg with a nasty gash above his knee but will be fit to play says McPake.
He said: “Christie did require a couple of stitches on the cut but he’ll be fine.
“It was a nasty gash we couldn’t risk taking him off for seven or eight minutes to stitch up.
“We had a perfect replacement with Jordan Marshall and it worked out perfectly to get him some minutes as well.
“We look at every game differently and we have a big enough squad that we can make changes if we want.
“Everybody is fine from Thursday but we have some good players chapping on the door as well.”
Dundee analysis: Energised Dark Blues on the verge of promotion after dominant first leg