Kevin Holt believes Dundee United must carry their winning mentality into next season in order to shine in the Premiership.
Holt was one of the stars of last season’s Championship title-winning campaign and has signed a one-year contract extension at Tannadice.
Having experienced top-flight football with United’s city rivals, Dundee, the defender can’t wait to test himself again at the highest level.
And he feels the self-belief accrued last term can fuel a front-foot start to the season.
“I think we just need to build on this year,” said Holt.
“I think obviously the manager’s got us playing some really good football, but we have to make sure that we know how to win games, ’cause, at the end of the day, it’s all about picking up points and finishing as high up the league next year as we can.
“That’s something that you don’t want to lose; you want to obviously carry that winning mentality that we’ve got at the club at the moment, we want to carry that into next year.”
Holt notched eight goals as United secured their return to the Premiership at the first time of asking.
Having scored nine the previous season with Partick Thistle, his success in front of goal was no fluke.
We just want to carry our momentum and see where it takes us.” Kevin Holt.
And he is once again aiming to earn a place amongst United’s top scorers.
Asked if he was hoping to rediscover his knack for goals next season, he said: “Yeah, definitely.
“The last couple of seasons I ended up just getting a few headers from corners and stuff like that, so I think there will be a wee argument between me and Moulty (top scorer Louis Moult) for penalties next year!
“That would be great to continue that into next season, but we know it’s going to be a hard year next year, going up a level. We just want to carry our momentum and see where it takes us.”
As for the defining factor in United’s promotion campaign, Holt said: “I think it was just a good group of boys, to be honest.
“Me and Doc (Ross Docherty) came in together (from Partick Thistle), so I knew him straight away and I knew a few of the other boys just from playing against them at other clubs.
“I think a lot of the boys just clicked really well at the start of the season and you could see that.
“After the first couple of games in the League Cup, we just grew into a good group of players and everyone understood each other really well.
“We started the season really strongly, which obviously helped and it was just really good to be a part of.”
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