The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Mcmullan is refusing to be drawn into any title talk
United star declares Tannadice men still have to claim 15 points
Paul Mcmullan is not quite ready to gaze into his crystal ball and predict when Dundee United will be crowned champions.
Indeed, everyone at United is doing a commendable job of avoiding talking about the elephant in the room.
That top-flight matches will be played at Tannadice next season has already been accepted by the rest of Scottish football.
It is their own fault, of course, that people are now assuming the title is in the bag.
Their 2-1 home victory over secondplaced Inverness Caley Thistle eight days ago had even the cagiest of United fans setting the sat-nav for Ibrox, Celtic Park and Pittodrie next season.
Mcmullan certainly produced a nifty side-step manoeuvre that wouldn’t have looked out of place in a busy penalty box when asked to say when he thought flag day would be.
The wee frontman, who is back from injury and expected to face his former club Dunfermline at East End Park today, said: “It is probably too far away to say.
“We might still need 15 points or whatever so it is a good month or so away.
“We just have to concentrate on getting wins and then, as it gets closer, we would probably start talking about what game or whatever then.
“The manager hasn’t even spoken about it with us, to be honest.
“We are just focused on Saturday, getting a win and obviously that takes you a step closer. The results before
Friday night weren’t the ones we wanted so it was good to get back on track against such a good side like Inverness.
“When you play the team that is closest to you in the league, you want to open up as big a gap as you can and, by beating them, we did that.
“We need to keep winning games to clinch it so we just have to look after ourselves. Others can speculate about when we might do it.”
Mcmullan admitted that he may take a sneaky peak at the Championship table in the weeks and months ahead.
He added: “I don’t mind looking at the league table now that we are getting closer to the end of the season. Obviously, when you are sitting top it is nice to see that.”
Mcmullan is expecting the Pars to have a go at United as they chase a playoff spot.
He said: “Everyone is either going for a play-off place or trying to stay up.
“So every game is tough and competitive. We just have to make sure we stay switched on and hopefully our quality comes through.
“Dunfermline are a good side,” he added.
“They have some really good players and they are usually pretty open games when we play them. They are normally good ones for the neutral to watch.
“Hopefully, it is the same this time and we can pick up another three points.”
Mcmullan is relishing being back involved with his team-mates, after finishing the ICT match as a used sub.
“I had three or four weeks there out injured when I was not really doing anything so I have recharged the batteries a wee bit and hopefully I can kick on until the end of the season,” he said.
“I felt I had recovered well enough from the injury to have played from the start against Inverness.
“However, the injury has flared up a couple of times so the manager didn’t want it to happen again and maybe lose me for three or four weeks.
“So we erred on the side of caution.”