MURRAY OUT TO CONSIGN DERBY HELL TO HISTORY

SIMON MURRAY may not have been directly involved at Dens Park on Monday, May 2 last year, but every subsequent waking hour has served as a reminder of what transpired. For Dundee United to be relegated at all last season would have been painful. For the mortal blow to be inflicted by a late goal from Dundee’s Craig Wighton proved the ultimate indignity. Making a swift return to the top flight at the expense of Hamilton in this week’s Premiership Play-off, firstly on Thursday at Tannadice and then the Superseal Stadium next Sunday, would go a long way to easing the pain. ‘I think about being relegated all the time,’ said 25-year-old Murray. ‘I was part of the squad when that happened and I have had to live with it. Half my mates are United fans, so they’re not happy with last season, and the rest are Dundee fans — so they’re the opposite. ‘There’s no escaping it, I get it from both sides. ‘You know what it’s like with your pals, they wind you up. I don’t let on to them that it gets to me. ‘But, hopefully, we can get through these next two games, get the club straight back up into the Premiership and I can give them it back. ‘We can’t change what happened last season but we can change what happens in the future.’ Martin Canning’s Accies avoided automatic relegation by thumping Dundee, but United have reason to believe they can buck the recent trend of Championship sides wilting at this stage. Trailing by a goal at Falkirk on Friday, it seemed that Ray McKinnon’s men had run out of steam. However, Murray’s leveller followed by Paul Dixon’s late header ensured fresh energy was injected into weary limbs. ‘Accies will know they’re in for a game,’ Murray added. ‘They are the Premiership side and will be favourites to progress. ‘But if we play like we did in the second half on Friday we’ll have a good chance of getting through it. We have momentum, which is really important at this stage of the season and our morale is great.’ Murray admits he was overwhelmed after netting on Friday. ‘I was kissed by about eight men during the celebrations,’ he laughed. ‘It shows what it means to people. Scoring like that is something you dream about. It was also the best feeling I’ve had in football when we got the winner.’