Goal hero Sam Stanton insists Dundee United will handle the pressure as they aim to blast the Championship title race wide open again.
The managerless Tangerines travelled to Dumbarton on Saturday in the wake of Ray McKinnon’s departure and secured a 2-0 victory that kept them right in touch with league leaders St Mirren.
The Buddies, who drew at home to Morton, are now just three points ahead of fourth-placed United and the pair meet at Tannadice this weekend.
Whether they have a new boss installed by then or not, win that one and it will be game on as far as promotion is concerned.
Stanton said: “Being at Dundee United and being in this league, it is no secret that everyone wants to go up.
“We should be going up.
“We have all come here in order to win promotion.
“So there is pressure but as a player here you want that pressure on you.
“People expect us to win and you would rather have that than being at a club where everyone expects you to lose.
“I like the pressure and so do the other lads.
“We also know this league is very tight and on their day any team can beat anyone else.
“It is very unpredictable so anything can happen.
“We just need to keep in touch at the top.
“If we beat St Mirren on Saturday then we will go level with them so that shows how close it is.”
Stanton got United up and running against the Sons after just one minute and 14 seconds.
He curled home the early opener than made it 2-0 with a low strike after 16 minutes.
The on-loan Hibs man said: “It was nice to get an early goal to help the confidence of the team.
“It is always difficult because you don’t like to see anybody lose their job.
“For me, personally, he was the manager who brought me into the team so you do feel partly to blame, I suppose, for somebody getting sacked.
“So it’s been a tough week but we have all pulled together, as we showed by getting this win.
“We all worked hard for each other and for (caretaker coach) Laurie Ellis.
“The previous two results (against Livingston and Inverness) were not good enough and we all knew that.
“Actually, it was not just the results that were poor but the performances have not been up to the standard that we would like as a group of players.
“With the quality we’ve got at United, it was unacceptable so it was nice to get back playing well again.”