Graham glad boss had faith in him after a below-Par loan

RATED not good enough for the worst team in the Championship only three months ago, Ross Graham admits his spirits were rock bottom.

Thankfully, he was able to seek a second opinion close to home when a disastrous loan at Dunfermline was terminated early.

Thomas Courts not only nursed Graham’s confidence better following that bruising spell.

The Dundee United manager retained sufficient faith to hand him a surprise debut at Celtic Park.

A last-gasp defeat, to Liel Abada’s goal, dealt Graham another crushing experience.

Yet being thrown in at the deep end, as a 50th-minute substitute on his first-team bow, has only inspired him.

Nine games later, Graham has cemented a place in United’s defence, is eyeing a dream Scottish Cup run and a first Scotland Under-21 call-up later this month.

Now he will tackle Celtic again in tomorrow night’s quarter-final as one of the most promising young players in the league.

‘It was a really low point at Dunfermline,’ confessed the 21-year-old.

‘I’d say my confidence was down but, when I came back to United, it started picking up.

‘Training with the first team again, I felt I’d a point to prove in every session.

‘I’m thankful the gaffer gave me that chance to show what I could do.

‘Everyone else has been great with me too. The senior lads and big Ryan Edwards the captain have helped me along the way.

‘The manager’s positivity is something I enjoy. He backs not just me but the whole team.

‘That’s what you need, to have the confidence of your gaffer. When I got the shout from him to go on at Celtic, it was unexpected.

‘But it probably worked in my favour not to think about it much, just getting thrown in.

‘I’m always going to remember that for the rest of my life because it was my debut.

‘We were unlucky to lose that goal right at the death in what was a good performance from us.’

East End Park proved a dead end for Graham’s progress despite an encouraging start of seven appearances for Peter Grant before mid-August.

The 21-year-old was dropped, featured only once more for Grant before his sacking and he made just one substitute outing under John Hughes.

‘It’s been an up and down season for me,’ admitted Graham.

‘It started off well at Dunfermline then went through a bit of a tricky spell that was hard for everyone.

‘You have to keep believing that things will change and thankfully they have for me.

‘I’ve loved my time being back at United and among all the lads again.

‘It’s been a really good few months for me. I’m delighted to be in the Scotland Under-21 squad.

‘I think the way I’ve been playing has merited that. I’m just thankful to get called up.’

Graham credits Dave Bowman, a 1994 Scottish Cup winner with United, with a significant role in his development.

The influence is clear. The combative and aggressive edge to Graham’s play has stood out in his breakthrough this year.

In his first five games, Abada’s 90th-minute sickener was the only goal conceded by United.

Now he hopes to track mentor Bowman’s footsteps all the way to lifting the trophy at Hampden.

Graham (below) explained: ‘It’s massive knowing the history of the club. I see a lot of them, particularly Dave.

‘He’s coached me over the years, been a big influence and helped me a lot.

‘He’s helped me through every game, every training session. I really look up to him.

‘I never saw him play but I’ve heard a lot of about him.

‘He’s a good guy to have around. You want to replicate what he did as a player — to win trophies and become a club legend.

‘It’s inspiring to see those guys. We need to try our best in this competition and try to pick up some silverware.’

Graham took the transformation in his fortunes to a new level with the goal in the 1-1 draw with Rangers at Tannadice last month. For his loan postings with Cove Rangers then Dunfermline had dragged him into the discomfort of the firing line against Rangers, including when exiting last season’s Scottish Cup.

Graham lost 4-0 with Cove at Ibrox, with Kemar Roofe and Jermain Defoe the difficult double act.

Earlier this season in the Premier Sports Cup with the Pars, the margin of defeat was five as Roofe, with a brace, once again gave Graham an indication of the levels he must reach to succeed. ‘Those couple of games will turn out really good experiences for me,’ stressed the United man.

‘In the early part of the season with Dunfermline, that was in front of 50,000 and put me in good stead for coming back to United. ‘You know you’ll play against them a good few times every season. I’d say playing against Kemar Roofe taught me a lot. ‘It was just all his movement during the game. Seeing that brought something to my game and put me in a good place for recent games I’ve played against the big clubs. ‘When you come up against Rangers and Celtic you have to be switched on for the whole 90 minutes or they will punish you.

‘But I don’t think there’s any fear on our part for this game. We’ve a good squad and expect to challenge these top two teams.

‘The quality of player is here so we need to go out and show that on Monday.’