Craig Slater has lifted the lid on his Tannadice torture – but remains fully committed to helping the Tangerines seal a dream return to the Premiership.
The 23-year-old on-loan Colchester United man celebrated his first goal for Csaba Laszlo’s men with his second half opener in Saturday’s 2-0 win over Championship runners-up Livingston which secured third place and set up a Premiership play-off quarter-final tie with rivals Dunfermline this week.
Former Kilmarnock player, who left Rugby Park back in 2016 for a lucrative move south to the League Two outfit, has found it tough on Tayside since joining on loan back in early January and has been only a bit-part player for Laszlo’s promotion hopefuls up until now.
It’s been a testing time for the ex-Killie fans’ favourite who’d been tipped for big things, but Slater insists he’s ready to play his part in their play-off quest which gets underway tomorrow night against the Pars at East End Park before hosting the Fifers in Friday’s decisive return leg in the hope of meeting Livi all over gain in the semi-final.
Slater said: “It’s been hard since coming here.
“I’m not going to lie about that.
“I’ve been chipping away but wasn’t involved in the last four or five games prior to this one.
“I’d been in the stand which is obviously frustrating.
“So this was the first chance I got to come in and thankfully I got a goal to stake my claim.
“Despite the frustration, I’ve not let my standards drop and have kept working away.
“Don’t get me wrong, I have wanted to do better for the team.
“But I have been working as hard as I can to give myself every chance so it’s just nice when stuff like that comes off.”
Slater’s timing in notching his first goal in a Tangerine jersey was almost as perfect as his run into the box to finish off winger Billy King’s 55th minute cross prior to Scott McDonald rounding things off with his textbook 85th minute header.
This win against David Hopkins’ men, who have been a revelation by finishing second in their first season back in the Championship, went some way to restoring confidence and momentum following their 3-0 thrashing at the hands of Queen of the South the previous weekend.
Slater is relishing this week’s crunch double-header with Allan Johnston’s side and believes United have every right to feel genuinely confident about their chances of progressing to the latter stages.
He said: “It’s good timing going into the play-offs.
“To be honest, it’s a great win.
“It’s set up for us. We’ve got it in our own hands now.
“We’ve obviously got quite a lot of games to go to try and get to where we want to be.
“We’ve had some good results against Dunfermline previously and they haven’t beaten us this season.
“Listen, hopefully we can beat them over the two legs.
“Listen, it’s maybe a good thing that we’re at home in the second leg but both games will be tough.
“We’ll be looking to win them both.
“Livingston made it tough for us but we played some good stuff.
“We could maybe have killed the game bit earlier but hopefully we can learn from that and look forward to the next match.”
Slater’s full focus is on trying to seal United’s place back in the top flight after their agony of missing out via the play-off final against Hamilton last year, so the forward has put on hold all talks over his own future, with his short-term deal at Tannadice set to expire in the summer.
He said: “I’m just taking it week by week.
“I’m not looking too far ahead.
“I was grateful to the club for letting me come here to try and get game-time.
“It’s in my hands. I know the player I can be if I work hard and get a run of games.”
It’s also in United’s own hands whether they proceed over the next few weeks to get back to where they feel they belong.
Few could have predicted such a roller-coaster campaign with so many set-backs along the way, but all that will be forgotten should they rise to the upcoming challenge which starts tomorrow away to Dunfermline and prove they really do deserve their place back at Scottish football’s top table.
