It’s all about us, declares ‘focused’ United boss McKinnon

Dundee United manager Ray McKinnon believes Falkirk’s experience of the play-offs will be irrelevant when the sides meet tonight.

The Tangerines host the Bairns in the first leg of the Premiership semi-final and it has been claimed by veteran former United boss Alex Smith – still working as technical director at Falkirk – that his club will have the edge because they went through it all last season, beating Hibs in the semi-final before eventually losing to Kilmarnock in the final.

Smith argued that what happened 12 months ago “will be an advantage” for Falkirk but that is not how McKinnon sees it.

The United boss said: “No, I don’t think that will matter at all. They are probably saying that to convince themselves that is the case.

“However, I believe it’s immaterial, what has gone before. What we will be doing is focusing on ourselves and our own performance. Nothing else matters to us.

“I do imagine the fact that we won 5-1 on aggregate against a very good Morton side will have been noticed.

“We are the form side going into this tie, without a doubt. I was delighted with how we handled the two legs against Morton and I would suggest we are in a very good place right now.”

While United ended up convincing winners against the Greenock men, they had sluggish starts in both legs of the quarter-final.

McKinnon doesn’t want that to be repeated this evening.

He said: “While it was encouraging to see how we dug in and eventually won comfortably against Morton, I am looking for a high performance level from start to finish this time.”

Ray McKinnon is playing down Falkirk’s play-off experience.