Dundee United forward Michael Gardyne is hoping he can play a pivotal part in firing the Tangerines up the SPL table in the season’s final five fixtures.
The 27-year-old striker has netted three times this season but is hoping to add to his tally in the absence of top scorer Johnny Russell when United host Motherwell in their first post-split game.
Competition for places is fast becoming fierce at Tannadice, particularly in attacking positions, but the former Celtic and Ross County hitman is relishing the challenge and is ready to do his bit in the run-in.
“Obviously competition is what you want at a club you don’t want to be settled because people would just rest on their laurels every week,” he said.
“Having the young boys coming through and boys coming back from injuries as well, it can only be good for the club, and it’s great to see players like Ryan Gauld and John Souttar coming through.
“To be fair to the young boys, they are level-headed and they are still in the under-20s dressing room.”
“They are doing brilliantly and they’ve come up and trained well, and when they’ve been asked to go into the games they’ve been absolutely brilliant.
“It’s good for them that they’ve got experienced pros there to help them through their day-to-day work. They help us and we help them.
“We’re playing with one up with two off at the moment so I’m not too sure what the gaffer will want to play, but I thought I did well when I came on on Sunday against Celtic.
“Hopefully that bodes well for the last five games.
“We’ve actually played well against Motherwell this season to be fair to them they’re flying and have been doing really well but we’ve done really well against them in every game we’ve played against them this season.
“So we’re looking forward to it.
“I think obviously our first target was getting into the top six so now we’ve got there we want to try and win as many games as possible. We want to finish as high up the league as we can and Europe is still a possibility.
“As long as Europe is still a possibility that’s got to be the aim for us.”
Gardyne has staked a claim for a forward role after impressing in Sunday’s Scottish Cup semi-final against Celtic, coming on for the final 10 minutes of regulation time before playing the 30 extra minutes.
It was in that extra-time period that he had the chance to cement his place in United folklore, having had a great opportunity to put his team 4-3 up.
“Jon Daly hit the post, the ball rebounded out and it hit my standing leg so I was a wee bit disappointed I couldn’t do better there,” he admitted.
“But I was delighted to get on and experience that kind of occasion again after a couple of years, and get a couple of shots away. We were all just gutted we didn’t get the win because we were confident of getting a result.
“The gaffer said to me beforehand it was all about belief and I think we showed on the day that we did believe that we could beat Celtic.
“It was a brilliant experience and although it was a bit gutting to lose, I thought we passed the ball really well.
“I thought we maybe deserved a wee bit more and they got lucky with a couple of goals obviously Kris Commons has put one in with his arm.
“But on the whole I thought we played well and we were just gutted we didn’t get through.”
Despite the heart-breaking nature of the defeat on Sunday, Gardyne believes United are certainly on the up under Jackie McNamara and reckons the fact they more than matched the SPL champions elect is cause for optimism.
Losing an early goal would normally have paved the way for a United collapse a few months ago, but Gardyne reckons his side are made from sterner stuff these days.
“Maybe in the past we would have crumbled after losing the goal so early,” he conceded.
“But the manager did say in the dressing room if we lose a goal it’s not the end of the world, don’t hide. He told us just to get the ball and pass and get a goal ourselves and he was proved right when we went 2-1 up.
“We just need to take confidence from our performance on Sunday into the final few games. Motherwell are flying just now so we need to be confident going into that.”
United boss McNamara revealed that Russell looks set to miss tonight’s game through injury and has been unable to put a firm timescale on his return.
A few other players are carrying knocks, with Barry Douglas nursing a shoulder injury, while Keith Watson is struggling after Sunday’s semi-final loss.
“In all fairness to him it was a miracle he managed to play 20 minutes,” McNamara revealed.
“The fact the lad went through to play in the game speaks volumes for him. He’s suffering a wee bit now so I think he might be out for the Motherwell game, but we’ll see.”