Lawrence Shankland dismissed claims Dundee United have been hit by the jitters – and insists they’ll close out the title race in style.
The Scotland star knows there have been rumblings of discontent as the Tangerines have won just one of their last five league outings.
United are still 16 points clear and although Inverness have two games in hand Shankland wants back to winning ways when bottom side Partick Thistle coming calling to Tannadice today.
He said: “If anyone had offered us this gap at the start of the season with nine games left we would have snapped your hand off.
“We are where we are on merit and it’s just about getting back to winning games now. The last few weeks have been a bit frustrating but it’s not as though we have been losing loads of games.
“It hasn’t been ideal but we’re still getting points and it is less games the teams below have to catch us. There is no need to be too worried and get down about it.”
The 29-goal striker wants to seal their Premiership run in style going into the final quarter of the season.
He said: “When you’ve been out in front for as long as we have it gets magnified and when you had a run like we were on people look at it. If you space out the draws, it’s still a good record.
“We have a healthy gap at the top of the league and we’ve earned it. We are in a good position with nine games to go but we can’t let ourselves think about other teams, we have to focus on ourselves and getting back to winning ways.”
Shankland goes up against his former Ayr United boss Ian McCall and knows he’ll be desperate to get a result on his Tayside return.
He said: “Ian is a good manager, he loves coming to places like Tannadice.
“They gave us a very good game here earlier in the season, it was tough and it will be tough again.
“ Partick were in a tough position when he went there but maybe he thought he’d taken Ayr as far as he could.
“He felt it was the right thing to do and now his players have to start producing for him.”
Jags No.2 Neil Scally insists Thistle have to ignite a charge away from the foot of the table sooner rather than later.
He said: “I’ve said all season that any side can beat anyone and that’s from the bottom to the top so we have no fears going to Dundee United.
“There’s a confidence that we can start building a run and the players recruited in January can play a big part.
“It’s time to show we’re better than our position suggests.”
