Dundee United midfielder Willo Flood will feel like a failure if the Tangerines don’t make it into the top six.
The wee Irishman, who will return from suspension to face St Johnstone at McDiarmid Park on Monday night, has revealed he would not be happy with a place in the bottom half even if the Tangerines went on to lift the Scottish Cup.
United, who face Celtic in the last four of the cup, have two league matches to play against Saints and Aberdeen before the split.
Flood is desperate to make it, saying: “The season will be viewed as a failure for me personally if we don’t get into the top six. I am sure everyone else in our changing room will think that way too.
“The reason is we have managed to get into the top six every year recently. We still have the Scottish Cup but even if we were to win that and finish in the bottom six that would still be seen as a failure by me.
“I think we need to win the two games. We are capable of that but we need to start getting victories. We must go all out and if we can beat St Johnstone on Monday we will then see where we are after that.
“It will help us that we will know the other results by then. I don’t think they will all go the way we want so St Johnstone is a must-win.”
Flood watched United’s last match the Tannadice derby draw with Dundee from the stand and thinks they will need to improve when they head to Perth.
“We will need to play a lot better than we did against Dundee in our last game,” he said. “They were down to 10 men and you really need to be winning matches like that.
“I thought that, for the first time in a derby this season, that we started well and were sharp. The sending-off killed us and we just didn’t get going after that but we can put things right on Monday.
“We have a good record against St Johnstone but they are a big, physical team with a few decent players as well. So when we go there we will have to raise our game. If we do that then we have shown we can beat any team in the SPL.”
Flood is out of contract in the summer and revealed that there will be talks held soon with United.
“I think you know more than me!” he joked when asked about his future. “I haven’t a clue. All I know is that I am contracted here until May/June and that the club will be speaking to my agent over the next two weeks or so. I’ll just wait and see.”