King seeing steady signs of progress from new-look Tangerines

Billy King is the first to admit that it is still very early days for the new-look Dundee United squad.

However, having previously secured promotion from the Championship with two clubs, he has seen enough to already believe he can make it a hat-trick with the Tangerines.

The 23-year-old netted his first goal for United in Wednesday night’s 3-0 Betfred Cup win in the Highlands against Buckie Thistle.

It was his side’s second competitive victory in a row coming after the weekend win over Raith Rovers and King admitted he is seeing signs of steady progress.

The winger said: “I think we’re favourites to win the Championship so there’s that bit of added pressure as well. I’m looking to make it three promotions with three different clubs.

“But I don’t think we can look too far in the future – we just need to concentrate on getting ourselves ready for the first league game of the season against Inverness and take it from there.

“The players here are capable of going up from what I’ve seen in training, the facilities and the lads brought in this season.

“Game by game we’re getting better. It’s just building up that relationship between players and getting to know how we play.

“Once that clicks, we’ll be a very good team in the Championship. We’re still not 100% there but we’ve still a few games left before the start of the season.”

King added: “There’s pressure everywhere you play and that was the case when I was at Hearts and Rangers too. I think the main thing is the pressure we put on ourselves in the changingroom to go out and get three points at the end of the day.

“If we play to our best and play to what we’re capable of then we’ve got a strong enough squad to win the league. But it’s just a matter of doing that consistently week in, week out.”

Meanwhile, former United defender Jassem Sukar has joined up with former Tannadice colleague Aidan Connolly at Vanarama National League North club York City.

The 21-year-old joined United in 2015 from Sunderland but never made the first team.

He enjoyed loan spells with Brechin, Peterhead and Arbroath, with whom he won a League 2 winners medal last season.

Billy King: targeting a third promotion.