Butcher: Play-off pain fuelling drive for glory

CALUM BUTCHER insists play-off final pain is fuelling Dundee United’s title charge and they won’t take their foot off the pedal until they are back in the Premiership. Robbie Neilson’s side are 13 points clear at the top of the Championship and could go 20 points above rivals Dundee with a win tonight. United go into the Tannadice derby on the back of a ninegame winning run and Butcher reckons the heartbreak of losing on penalties against St Mirren has been behind their relentless run. The midfielder said: “Off the back of losing the Premiership play-off final last season we sat in the dressing room and said we can’t be sitting here having this same conversation again. “It gave us all that burning desire to get back to the Premiership. When most of the boys like myself came in during January we wanted to go up that season. “We knew it was going to be tough to catch Ross County but we were still confident going into the play-offs. To lose the

BY SCOTT BURNS way we did against St Mirren kept a bit of hunger for this season. A lot of boys are still carrying that.”

Dundee were tipped as possible title challengers but, like the rest of the chasing pack, they’ve been blown away.

Dark Blues striker Kane Hemmings has already conceded the title but Butcher takes that with a pinch of salt.

And Butcher said: “He’s maybe saying that just to take a little bit of pressure off them.

“We can’t really focus on what anyone else is saying. It’s about us. It’s about going into every single game and making sure we’re at it and keep picking up results as well as we have been.”

United are looking to make it a derby hat-trick against Dundee. They beat them 2-0 at Dens Park last time out but the big one for Butcher was where he scored a double in the 6-2 Tannadice triumph.

Butcher added: “The derby win in August was the highlight for me. But there have been a lot of highlights. They’ve both been tough games. We’ve got to make sure we’re ready from the first whistle.”