Mark Reynolds will look around the Dundee United dressing room today and conclude that they have enough to beat St Mirren.
The Tangerines may only be sitting third in the Championship while the Buddies are up in the Premiership but Reynolds is convinced they can triumph in today’s William Hill Scottish Cup fifth round tie in Paisley.
The central defender is one of a team of new players to have arrived at Tannadice during the transfer window and he feels they are now well equipped to not just reach the quarter-finals but also finally get back to the top flight.
The on-loan Aberdeen man said: “We have the players to handle this – definitely.
“The manager has recruited well in January.
“He has strengthened quite a bit and brought in the equivalent of a new starting 11.
“There were also good players here before who will also be fighting for a place in the team.
“When you are pushing for promotion and trying to do well in the cup you need strength in depth.
“You need strong players and multiple options for each position.
“It is now about imparting the manager’s ethos on to us and helping the team to evolve going forward.
“It is a huge game against St Mirren and another opportunity for us to try and build some momentum.
“It is about grinding out results now and getting a bit of consistency.
“We want to kick on and make a big push until the end of the season.”
Reynolds knows what it is like to lift a cup so would love to go as far as he can with United in this tournament.
He said: “You want to win every game regardless of whether it is league or cup.
“Obviously the big boys are still in there but we want to do well in the competition.
“At Aberdeen I saw what it meant when you get used to winning.
“It is a habit and you start expecting to win.
“We want to carry that into the cup game.
“If we do the right things with the players he has recruited we can go and win that game and get through to the next round.
“St Mirren are a good team and they can cause you problems but if we can put in a performance like we did on Saturday then we will give it a good go.”
That 2-1 victory over Morton – especially the flowing first-half performance – has given everyone at the club a boost.
Reynolds, who was captain for the day, added: “It was a big game and getting three points was huge.
“We didn’t want to drop any points as we were trying to bed in.
“Going forward we looked very exciting and hopefully we can only get better.
“It is always good for morale and bonding when you go out and play well.”
Reynolds, who has battled back from a serious knee injury, revealed he was given the option to stay at Pittodrie by manager Derek McInnes.
However, he wanted to play and jumped at the chance to join United for the rest of this season.
He said: “The manager (McInnes) phoned me on Thursday night late on and said United had been on the phone looking to take me on loan.
“He said it was up to me, although Aberdeen were happy to keep me.
“It was a chance to go and get games and play for a side looking to do something this season.
“The manager wanted to be fair to me.
“He said he didn’t want me to find out three weeks down the line United were in for me.
“He left the decision down to me.
“You can train as much as you want and play as many reserve games but you want to be involved on a Saturday.
“You want to feel that pressure and for me I wanted to test my knee.
“There were always question marks and I wanted to find out if it was as good as I was telling everyone.
“I wanted to find out whether I was fully over it. Hopefully, Saturday laid some of that to rest as I got through the full 90 without any issues.
“I can now try and go from strength to strength and get the club back to the Premiership.”
