Paul Paton is relishing the chance to lead Dundee United out of relegation trouble – but he stressed that every player needs to take responsibility in a crucial finale to the season.
United remain five points adrift at the foot of the Ladbrokes Premiership ahead of a Tannadice clash with Inverness on Saturday plus five more games in the regular season.
Paton has skippered the team in recent games with club captain Sean Dillon often starting on the bench and the midfielder has led by example, United’s form improving markedly since his return from a long-term knee injury in January.
The 28-year-old said: “The gaffer has given me that responsibility and I thrive on that. I am happy to be a captain.
“I still very much see Sean Dillon as club captain, he is still the captain in my eyes and I still look up to him.
“But on the pitch I’d like to think I have always played the same way, given my all for the club. That will never stop.
“But if we end up staying up and I have captained the side through that, then there will be a sense of achievement there.”
Paton has become accustomed to fighting in the upper reaches of the table with United and Partick Thistle beforehand, who he helped secure promotion. And he is in no doubt that it is tougher at the bottom.
“There is pressure on everyone at the club,” the Northern Ireland international said.
“The players have the pressure of other people’s jobs on their shoulders. They know that they have let a lot of people down this year. The only positive is we still have time to turn it around.
“Anybody that has stepped on the park this season has got to take responsibility, it’s not been good enough. We feel as if we have players who should be winning games. We can’t afford to let the club slide down.
“If you don’t rise to that responsibility, you shouldn’t be at the club. No player should want a relegation on their CV.
“It’s embarrassing where we find ourselves, a club like Dundee United with the fanbase, what the chairman has put into the club. We shouldn’t be bottom of the league, it’s as simple as that.
“But we are and you have got to have the mental toughness to get out of that situation.”
United missed the chance to close the gap to two points on Tuesday when they squandered a host of first half chances at Firhill before going down 1-0 to Thistle in their game in hand. And Paton knows they cannot afford many more slip-ups.
“We give ourselves a chance and shoot ourselves in the foot, but we are still positive,” he said.
“We said if we could give ourselves five points at the split then we would be happy, especially when we were 14 points adrift, and it could have been 17. It could have been game over then.
“We showed a lot of mental toughness to come through that. I think we are still showing it now but we need to put a wee run together.
“We have won one, lost one, drew. I think it’s time we put three or four wins together.”