Pleasing Paatelainen is Mckay’s key to France

AS a member of Northern Ireland’s Euro 2016-bound squad, Billy Mckay can claim to have played a very small part in costing Mixu Paatelainen his dream job.

Paatelainen was sacked as Finland boss in June after struggling to keep up with the qualifying pace in Group F, a section eventually won by a Northern Irish side bossed, quite coincidentally, by his old Cowdenbeath assistant Michael O’Neill.

Mckay featured in two of his country’s qualifiers and part of his rationale for agreeing to a season-long loan to Dundee United from Wigan was to give himself the game time necessary to nail down a place in O’Neill’s squad for France.

Paatelainen has since replaced Jackie McNamara and the striker is determined to put in the hard graft to ensure the new United boss has a platform on which to build a long and successful stint at Tannadice.

‘I was in the squad when we beat Finland at home and it obviously didn’t happen for the manager in that job,’ said Mckay. ‘But the way he’s going about things at the moment, he’s definitely got a chance of making a success of things here.’

Mckay made his name through his exploits at Inverness Caley Thistle, where he exploded into goalscoring form under Terry Butcher and maintained it under John Hughes, averaging almost a goal every two games.

Encouraged to express themselves under McNamara, there has been a sense that United’s talented but inexperienced squad have suffered from a lack of bite as they have slumped to the bottom of the Ladbrokes Premiership table.

Paatelainen has already set about toughening up their daily routine.

‘There has been a change in approach,’ continued Mckay. ‘We’re training hard.

‘He has put more physical demands on the players and Wednesday was one of the toughest training sessions I’ve done since pre-season.

‘The younger players here have probably not seen that before and it’s something they really need to take to.

‘I think having someone making sure they don’t ease up will help them.

‘But what’s also come across is that you can go and speak to him. He’s made that known to the players.’

Today, United face the challenge of the reigning Premiership champions Celtic. A former United player himself, Paatelainen joined the club during the era of Jim McLean who routinely expected his team to get results in Glasgow.

The current side may have no right to such pretensions, especially as McLean was still in charge when United last won at Parkhead in 1992.

‘I believe the players have that attitude that they can win,’ said Paatelainen.

‘It will be a big ask and, even under McLean, when we went to Ibrox and Parkhead we were not stupid.

‘We want to make sure we don’t go there and be too bullish and then after 10 minutes find ourselves two down. Jim wasn’t gung-ho. It was a sensible approach.

‘He was well ahead of his time. You look at the results. UEFA Cup Final? Dundee United? Unbelievable. Imagine us reaching the Europa League Final?’

In Mckay, United have at least one player who harbours his own European dreams and he also knows what it is like to score a winning goal at Celtic Park, having earned Inverness a victory there three years ago.

A similar scenario today would enhance the 27-yearold’s CV, but consistency of performance is his priority as he aims for involvement in France next year.

‘To be involved in a competition like that would be amazing,’ added the striker. ‘I’ve got to work hard to help this team get up the league and, hopefully, that helps me get on the plane.’