The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Keatings’ sights on adding to hat-trick
DUNDEE UNITED: New signing looking forward to another Championship promotion push
Striker James Keatings is hoping to be a lucky charm for Dundee United, having already scored a promotion hat-trick.
Keatings, 25, arrives at Tannadice from Hibs on a two-year contract having just clinched the Championship title with the Easter Road men.
When you consider that he was also in the Hamilton side that made the Premiership via the play-offs in 2014 and claimed a winner’s medal with Hearts the following season, then you can see why Keatings can be considered a specialist.
Striker James Keatings is hoping to be a lucky charm for Dundee United, having already scored a promotion hat-trick.
Keatings, 25, arrives at Tannadice from Hibs on a two-year contract having just clinched the Championship title with the Easter Road men.
When you consider that he was also in the Hamilton side that reached the Premiership via the play-offs in 2014 and claimed a winner’s medal with Hearts the following season, then you can see why Keatings can be considered as something of a specialist.
Some have cruelly suggested that he maybe doesn’t fancy the top flight, having left all those clubs before the fizz had gone out of the celebratory Champagne.
However, Keatings brushed all that away and can’t wait to help Ray McKinnon’s men as they bid to return to the Premiership at the second time of asking.
He said: “I hear people speak about it and I guess achieving three promotions is pretty good but I look upon this as if I am going for my first.
“I don’t see it as a step down, to be staying in the Championship.
“I may have left Hibs but I am still at a big club and United are aiming for success.
“As a footballer you want to win things, not be fighting in mid-table, going for nothing or in a relegation battle.
“By coming here, I know I am going to be targeting success and that’s good.
“Quite a lot of people have spoken about how I keep staying in the Championship and stuff like that.
“Even some of my mates have joked about it, telling me that I’m just a Championship player.
“But I think everybody knows that if and when the time comes I will play in the Premiership. “I am not frightened by it at all. “I know what I am capable of and I know I can play there. “I hope I can get there with United. “They had been pushing Hibs but I think at the end of the season results didn’t go for them. There were a few draws and they kind of fell away.
“United are a big club in Scotland and I am sure we will be battling it out at the top of the league in the new season.”
The priority for Keatings is to be playing regularly in his preferred role of striker, having spent much of last term standing in the queue behind Jason Cummings, who has subsequently joined Nottingham Forest.
“That was the main thing for me – moving for the right reason,” he added.
“I had offers and I could have gone to the SPL if I wanted to but it was one of those where I could have taken the chance of going up and sitting on the bench getting 15 minutes here and there, playing left wing and right wing.
“I had the offer from Hibs to stay there and do the same thing over but I don’t want to be remembered as someone who comes off the bench.
“I want to be a player who is playing 90 minutes, scoring goals, getting assists and pushing my team forward.”
Keatings was part of the Hibs side that achieved legendary status by winning the Scottish Cup just over a year ago, coming on a second-half sub for Cummings, and he admitted it wasn’t easy to leave Easter Road.
“I got offered the two-year deal from Hibs about a month-and-a-half before the end of the season so I had a lot of time to think about it,” said Keatings.
“I sat down and chatted with my father and my agent, as well as speaking to people who had managed me before. “I had to do what was best for me. “I loved my time at Hibs and they are a great club with a fantastic bunch of boys who achieved things.
“The Scottish Cup win was special and it gave me memories that will be there for the rest of my life.
“That group of boys was very close-knit, certainly the closest I have experienced.
“We all stuck together and were there for each other. But, for me, I had to let it go and I think the Hibs lads understood that.
“They all had nice things to say to me when I left, with a few agreeing this move is probably the right thing to do for the sake of my career.
“I also got a lot of good messages from the Hibs fans, many of whom I met when I was away on holiday. “So it was nice to leave on good terms. “The last three years had been a bit
As a footballer you want to win things, not be fighting in mid-table, going for nothing or in a relegation battle. JAMES KEATINGS
frustrating because at both Hearts and Hibs I had strikers ahead of me (Osman Sow and Cummings respectively). I couldn’t really complain, though, because both of them got goals.
“I never gave up, however, and kept fighting to get into the starting side.”
Having witnessed at close-quarters how you win the Championship after being installed as favourites, Keatings hopes United can now do a Hibs.
He said: “There is pressure because you are looking to win every single week. You have to handle that expectation.
“You always have to make sure you are on your game and know what is coming from your opponents.
“You have to go to a few tough away grounds, such as Dumbarton.
“You get difficult matches all the time because the Championship is a tough league.
“It took Hibs three years to get out of it so that shows you all you need to know about the division.
“It is about keeping your standards high throughout the season.