Jim Goodwin has told his Dundee United players they need to win at least HALF of their remaining eight games if they’re to avoid the drop.
The Tannadice side haven’t tasted victory in their last 11 league outings and are contending with a mini injury crisis heading into the Easter Sunday clash with Hibs. But Goodwin insists it WON’T take a miracle to resurrect their season - just one win to get things rolling.
United are rock bottom on 22 points - two behind Ross County who sit in the play off spot and six behind Kilmarnock in the safe realms of 10th. Both play on Saturday and could be even further ahead by the time United kick-off against Hibs.
Goodwin, who has refused to set a points target up until now, said: “You have got to be brutally honest about the situation. Of course you want to relieve players of the situation but they’re all capable of reading the league table and seeing the situation.
“Time is of the essence and we need to win at least four games between now and the end of the season. Ultimately I think that’s what the target needs to be. That’s 50 percent of the games we have left.
“People on the outside looking in will think that’s a mountain to climb because we’ve not had a win in the league for a hell of a long time.
“But we can’t affect what’s happened in recent months, we have to all pull together and believe we can get out of the mess we’re in.
“Draws are no use to us any more, we have to go into every game looking to win it.
“If we can keep in touching distance of County and Kilmarnock going into the split then anything can happen.
“I remember Hamilton winning four of five after the split to stay up, so it can happen and we have to have that same outlook.”
Goodwin is taking no chances and last night attended the Championship clash between Partick Thistle and Queen’s Park to cast an eye over potential play-off opponents should United finish second bottom.
He said: “You never know, we might end up in the position where we are playing one of them in a play-off.
“Obviously we want to avoid the play-offs as well but we have to do everything we can.
“Hopefully this can be a pivotal weekend and we can get a win. We feel we should have one already because of what happened in that St Mirren game. So to get one would give everyone a real lift.
“You saw what happened with Kilmarnock last weekend, not many people saw that coming and it just shows you what can happen.
“Teams at the bottom can cause upsets so we have to have that mindset of what’s possible when we play Hibs.
“They’re not on a great run themselves so we have to try to take advantage of that.
“I would expect Elie Youan to come back in and everyone knows about Kevin Nisbet, so Hibs have quality at the top end of the pitch.
“They have plenty of creativity but we think we’ve got good players at the top end of the pitch too.
“I don’t think we’ve shown that enough but we have to show it now, be on the front foot and cause Hibs as many problems as possible.”
Only 15 players trained yesterday as Goodwin contends with an injury problem that has seen Peter Pawlett join Dylan Levitt, Liam Smith and Glenn Middleton on the crock list.
He said: “We have far too many injuries at the moment.
“It has been a long, hard competitive season and everyone else is in the same boat.
“We’re still not sure about the extent of Peter’s injury, the scan showed a nick in the hamstring so it could be two weeks or it could be six weeks, we’ll have to see.
“Liam Smith is a longer one, we will be doing well to see him again before the end of the season.
“Glenn Middleton is the one we are most hopeful on and we’ll have him back for the games after the split.
“Dylan Levitt could be back before the end of the season, we’re hoping that might happen.”
Meanwhile, on-loan Huddersfield teenager Loick Ayina insists the pressure at the bottom of the table is not taking it’s toll.
The 19-year-old said: “I think we can do good things. The position we are in the league is not what we want but we have a big game on Sunday and if we can take three points then we can take that momentum into the next game.
“I’m young but I don’t think about the pressure. This is football and when I’m on the pitch, I don’t think about other things.”
