Mark Durnan is eager to get back to playing at Tannadice so he and his Dundee United team-mates can start repaying the fans for their magnificent backing.
Despite facing another season of their team being in the Championship, well over 4,000 Arabs snapped up season tickets during the summer.
The big defender has been blown away by that level of backing and is determined to reward it by making Tannadice a fortress again this year.
Despite missing out on promotion by a whisker, that was the case in 2016-17 when a solitary league defeat at the hands of Hibs was the only home defeat.
And the same kind of record again is the least he believes the supporters deserve for their show of loyalty.
“The fans have shown great backing for the team through the season tickets they’ve bought. They’ve gone over the target the club set and that’s testament to them. The players can’t thank them enough for that.”
Over the road at Dens Park on Wednesday night, the Tangerines suffered their first setback of this term when a five-game unbeaten run was brought to an abrupt end by city rivals Dundee in the Betfred Cup.
Painful as that was, Durnan knows victory when league business resumes against Queen of the South tomorrow will see what’s been a solid start maintained.
“It will be good to be back at home because (after a run of three away games) it feels like it’s been a while since we’ve been at Tannadice in front of our home fans. I’m looking forward to it. It’s a big match for us because we want to get off to a good start on our own pitch.”
It will, in fact, be just three weeks since the last home runout — a comprehensive 4-1 Betfred group win over Cowdenbeath — but in that time manager Ray McKinnon has added more new faces like Scott McDonald and Fraser Fyvie, both of whom are set for home debuts.
Although after a summer of change the team remains a work in progress, Durnan believes things are coming together nicely.
“We’ve not had a lot of time to gel and the pre-season games came very quickly, plus you don’t get that many of them because of the Betfred Cup.
“Injuries have also hampered a few of the boys but we are certainly getting there in terms of fitness and gelling. We are only going to get better.”
When he looks at the squad, he believes that was always going to be the case. In terms of quality he likes what he sees in the dressing-room and knows that means every player will have to be right at it if they’re going to get the starting place they’re all after.
“You just look at our bench and you see the quality of players that’s there and, in the derby on Wednesday, we even had Scott Allardice, who played well up at Inverness last week, sitting in the stand.
“That quality gives you confidence and you also know you have to do well.
“If you have a bad game, you know there’s someone else there who can come in.”
For him, that knowledge made having to sit out the opening-day win at Inverness because of suspension a nervy 90 minutes. He’s also of the opinion that these “carry-over” bans from previous seasons should be scrapped.
“You want to play every match, so it was difficult sitting out at Inverness. I do feel they should change it, it’s a poor punishment.
“Scott McDonald was in the same situation as me but the boys got a good result and that’s the main thing. It was really important to start well.”
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