To be a springboard towards safety

“The way I see it, my progress comes from the preparation I’ve had in training and then taking it into games.

“The way the games have developed this season it has allowed me to show my abilities but you need to be consistent and keep learning.

“It has been a good season for me personally but you always have to improve, add more to your repertoire.

“Whether it’s fitness-wise, skill-wise or mentality – you can always get better at something.”

The Terrors travel to South Lanarkshire this afternoon looking to make a fruitful start to life in this season’s bottom six.

It will be United’s third trip to New Douglas Park this season and, although it could be said familiarity breeds contempt, the teams certainly seem happy enough in each other’s company.

They have been inseparable at Accies’ ground, sharing the spoils twice in previous meetings in the Scottish Premiership.

A war of attrition it seems. Siegrist hopes that changes, even if he doesn’t quite understand why they’re getting another bite at the cherry.

“I don’t know how it works,” he laughed.

“I would prefer to play at home three times than away but it is my first time in the split and I don’t know what the criteria is.” side and are trying to play the game the right way. They are the only team who I would say have convincingly beaten us this season.

“However, we will not be lambs to the slaughter, I can tell you that. I named my team during the week and we will not be making many changes, because I could not look any of them in the eye and tell them they are not playing after such a good win last week.”

Campbell is likely to be without attacking trio Luke Donnelly, Gavin Swankie and Bobby Linn as they step up their recovery from injury. n LEWIS Mayo is convinced the intensity of Dunfermline’s Championship play-off push can only be good for his Rangers career.

The Ibrox youngster is gearing up for a massive last five games on loan with the Pars as they attempt to seal a top-four finish.

Mayo will this afternoon return to the scene of his first start for the

Fifers when they travel to take on Ayr United desperately seeking a first victory in six matches.

Mayo said: “We’re in a strong position and hopefully if we can match the performance against Hearts we’ll put ourselves in the mix and in an exciting position to finish the season.

“We also need to look at the start to the season and realise that, on our day, we can go and perform against anyone and beat anyone.”

CALLUM Davidson is looking to record St Johnstone’s first win over Aberdeen this season today when the Pittodrie club travel to McDiarmid Park still in a state of transition.

The Perth club captured the Betfred Cup for the first time in their history in February and made it into the top six in the final pre-split game but success against the Granite City outfit has proved somewhat elusive.

Saints lost 1-0 at McDiarmid Park in August, went down 2-1 at Pittodrie on Boxing Day and there was a home goalless draw in January.

New Dons boss Stephen Glass is set to take charge next week following a period of self-isolation on his return from the USA, with reserve-team coach Paul Sheerin at the helm again.

“You look back at the games you played against them and they have a lot of quality players in their team,” said Davidson.

“They have struggled for goals lately but you look at the players they have got and sometimes it will click.

“We have played really well against them this season and not taken as many points as we would have liked.

“It is a big game for us regarding the top five.

“I will look at their last couple of games and try to assess what they do and try to work from there.

“They will be buzzing. They will want to prove to the new manager that they should be playing for Aberdeen and it is up to me to make sure I stop them.”

Callum Hendry, who joined Aberdeen on loan from Saints on February 1, is not eligible to play against his parent club.

Davidson noted that the 23-year-old striker scored the winner in the 1-0 victory over Kilmarnock in February and his goal last weekend knocked Dumbarton out of the Scottish Cup.

“It was a difficult decision to make,” said Davidson.

“We managed to get a small loan fee for Callum and obviously we wanted him to play games at Aberdeen.

“He did at the start of the season and didn’t score many goals for me so it is great to see him get a couple of goals, one against Dumbarton.

“I am obviously keeping a close eye on him and watching what he is doing because he is my player for next season and hopefully he will get many minutes on the pitch with the new manager coming in between now and the end of the season.”

Midfielder Murray Davidson is making progress on his comeback from a calf injury and has returned to training but will be monitored.

Fraser Hornby has recovered from a niggle picked up before last week’s game at Dumbarton.

Elsewhere today Tommy Wright’s Kilmarnock host Ross County at Rugby Park while ninth-placed Motherwell welcome St Mirren, who are just one point ahead of Dundee United. The Buddies currently lie in seventh position in the table.

Siegrist remains modest as he is linked with host of sides home and abroad. Milestone for United’s goalkeeper.