Dundee United‘s Ryan Dow insists the Tangerines remain upbeat despite seeing themselves fall further adrift at the bottom of the table.
United got a decent draw at Hamilton on Saturday, largely thanks to a late penalty save from keeper Eiji Kawashima.
However, they walked off New Douglas Park only to discover that Kilmarnock had won at Motherwell.
That meant Killie moved 13 ahead of United and left the Steelmen in 11th spot, albeit still a dozen points better off than Mixu Paatelainen’s side.
The Tangerines do have the chance tonight to reduce the gap to nine points when they welcome the Fir Park team to Tannadice and Dow claims that heads are still high.
He said: “It was disappointing to come in after the Hamilton game and find out that we had lost ground.
“Had that penalty gone in it would have been a lot worse.
“We would have been that bit flatter going into the Motherwell match.
“We have talked about momentum, though, and while we didn’t win on Saturday that is now three matches unbeaten for us (against Kilmarnock, Partick Thistle and Accies).
“I know one of them (against the Jags) was in the cup but that’s still three without a loss, including two clean sheets.
“We just need to concentrate on ourselves.
“That’s what the manager said after the Accies game if we win against Motherwell then we will look at the Hamilton result as a good point.
“It would mean we will have taken four points from those two league games.
“It is easier said than done but we will be optimistic about facing Motherwell.
“Hopefully, it will be similar to Kilmarnock a couple of weeks ago when they were the team that was directly above us.
“We went out and won that one and played really well.
“We’ll be looking to do the same this time.”
While not claiming United are in a false position, Dow does feel that they don’t have the look of relegation sure-things at the moment.
“Collectively, we are going well,” he said.
“Our shape is good and everyone is working hard.
“I would agree that we are not playing like a team that’s adrift.
“The boys are not thinking like that.
“Even before the last few weeks we were playing well but not getting the results.
“We were losing silly goals and at least we have rectified that.
“If you ask any of the lads I know the league table shows we are bottom of the league they will say we are not playing like that.
“We are playing with confidence and going into every game thinking we can win it.
“If we continue on this wee run it could put pressure on the sides above us.
“You want them to be looking over their shoulders so they are going into games needing to win because they think we will pick up three points.
“If the gap does go to nine you are only three wins away and we are playing a lot of the teams down there once the split comes.
“We just need to narrow it down and win as many as we can.”