Driven on by the hurt of failure

Play-off agony fuels Butcher and United’s latest promotion bid

Calum Butcher has revealed how the memory of suffering Premiership play-off final heartache against St mirren is spurring Dundee united on to seal a coveted top-flight return this season.

Butcher has been a major driving force for Robbie Neilson’s relentless Championship pacesetters, who currently lead nearest challengers Inverness Caley Thistle by 13 points going into tonight’s televised Tannadice derby with city rivals Dundee.

Back in may, though, the Tangerines were left heartbroken when they squandered a golden opportunity to clinch their place back in the top tier of Scottish football by missing all four penalties in an agonising shoot-out which consigned them to a fourth consecutive season in the Championship. midfielder Butcher was part of the united side on that gut-wrenching Sunday afternoon in Paisley — and admits it was there and then that they vowed never again to allow themselves to endure such agony. and the experienced Englishman, who recently signed a new deal to keep him on Tayside until 2023, believes the awful experience of seven months ago has acted as a catalyst in their quest for promotion.

Butcher said: ‘I think the play-off defeat hurt a lot of us.

‘When most of the boys like myself came in during January, we wanted to go up that season.

‘We knew it was going to be tough to catch Ross County but we were still very confident going into the play-offs.

‘So to lose the way we did on penalties against St mirren kept a bit of hunger in our stomachs for this season.

‘a lot of boys are still carrying that. We want to play in the Premiership next season and know we have to get out of this league as quickly as possible. ‘You’re always proving people wrong in football. That’s the case in every game.

‘It did hurt. We sat there in the dressing room and agreed that we couldn’t be doing the same thing and saying the same things 12 months later.

‘It gave us all that burning desire to get back to the Premiership.

‘We had a good pre-season and started the campaign quite well.

‘We’ve come through a tough run of fixtures recently, stuck together, and got the results we were looking for.

‘We’ve got a really good squad of players, with good management. ‘Overall, I’m not really surprised about where we are at the moment but there are lots of games still left. ‘We’re in a great position but, realistically, we’re maybe going to have a dip at some point. ‘If that happens, we’ve just got to stick together as always and get the results that matter.’ united are considerable favourites to make it a hat-trick of straight derby victories, having already thumped James mcPake’s Dark Blues 6-2 back in august, before enjoying a 2-0 win at Dens Park last month. Butcher lapped up every minute of the 6-2 mauling in front of the live cameras as the

Tangerines ran riot. But the 28-year-old insists the o n form hosts, who swept away ayr united 4-0 at Tannadice last weekend, will have to beware a Dundee side who have experienced an upturn in their own fortunes of late. Butcher said: ‘Personally, the 6-2 derby win back in august was the highlight for me. But, to be fair, there’s been a lot of highlights so far this season. ‘We’ve just got to keep on going and can’t wait for this one. ‘They’re (Dundee) going to be up for it and will try to get back at us after the last two fixtures. ‘So we’ve got to make sure we’re ready from the first whistle. ‘It has quite possibly helped having Dundee in the league this campaign. at the start of the season, having that first game at home against Dundee, we sort of knew we wanted to get off to a really good, winning start against them. ‘We managed to do that and we’ve kicked on since then. We’re the two big teams in the league after all. They’ve come down from the Premiership, so we knew they were going to bring in players and have a real go this season. ‘There’s still a long way to go and Dundee are now starting to pick up results again. ‘They’re just off the back of two wins, so we know it’s going to be a difficult game.’