Dundee United winger Glenn Middleton spoke to the broadcast media to preview our Wiliam Hill Premiership clash with Dundee on Matchday 30.

Our number 15 discussed getting back to business following a free week, the pulsating experience of playing in a Dundee derby, avoiding complacency and more!

ON GETTING BACK ON THE PITCH AFTER A TWO-WEEK HIATUS

Everyone’s in a good mood, everyone’s really looking forward to it as you’d expect. We’ve had a good week’s worth of training and it’s building up nicely to the game on Sunday.

We picked up a couple of knocks in the Aberdeen game, and we tired as a team slightly, so the break came at a nice time. It’s given us the chance to have a couple of days off, and training has been good ahead of Sunday, so it’s all come together nicely.

The more players we have available, the stronger we’ll be. We’ve shown throughout the season that everyone’s been able to be called upon and everyone’s been reliable throughout, so that’s never been a problem.

ON THE EXCITEMENT OF BEING INVOLVED IN A DUNDEE DERBY

It’s one of the best games in Scottish football and unless you’re a part of it you don’t know how much it means to people and how much it can have an effect. We’ll be fully confident going into the game and we’re in a great position, but they’ll have everything behind them to cause us problems, so it has the makings of a good game.

I’m sure it'll be crazy, especially the first 15-20 minutes and the crowd will be up for it. It’ll be 100 miles per hour, but as always, it’ll be over to the team that handles that the best in terms of getting the ball down, playing better football and being more clinical on the day.

The atmosphere is brilliant in the game, and the excitement builds throughout the week as you get closer to the day. I’m sure Sunday will be no different.

 ON BUILDING UP MOMENTUM FOR THE RUN IN

We must take a lot of confidence from where we are in the league. We’re in the position we are in at the minute for a reason, throughout the season we have been very consistent, and I think we’ve gone into every game giving ourselves a chance - this week will be no different.

It’s a chance to get real momentum behind us and get ourselves back on track for the last few games before the split.

We want to carry on the way we have done throughout the season, and adding a bit of consistency will help us achieve our goals. We’re taking nothing for granted for the remaining four games, and I think if we play the way we did against Aberdeen then we’ll do well, starting on Sunday. 

ON HIS PLANS BEYOND THE END OF THE SEASON

Nothing has really happened on the contract front, it’s just how it is at this stage of the season, everyone is just focused on the game at hand. We’ve got an opportunity every weekend to show what we can do, and that’s just the attitude myself and others are showing just now.

Everyone likes to be settled and that’s what I’ve been the last couple of years - I’m grateful for that. I’m looking at every game between now and the end of the season as an opportunity to keep building on what I’ve done this season.

ON THE DRESSING ROOM ENVIRONMENT

From day one we’ve had a close changing room, especially in the last couple of years, it’s been a privilege to be a part of the changing room with these boys. I’ve learned a lot about myself and about managing certain situations, so for that I’ll always be grateful.

ON OUR OPPOSITION

Every team goes through ups and downs throughout the season, and deals with situations differently. They’ve had performances where they’ve shown how capable they are of hurting other teams, so in these games the opposition’s league position is almost false.

We can’t get complacent with anything. Their confidence may be low, but as they’re a very good team with some real threats all over the pitch. However, we trust ourselves to take them seriously and the manager will set us up to deal with the threats they pose.

I’d like to see them stay up, as the derby games are enjoyable to be a part of. The passion between both sets of fans is special, and I’m sure Sunday will be no different.

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