McNamara wants home comforts
Manager Jackie McNamara believes Dundee United's home form could be the key to a successful season as the Terrors aim to begin life at Tannadice on a high in Saturday's Scottish Premiership match against Inverness.
The Taysiders struggled to produce the goods in front of their own fans last season and that is one of the areas McNamara wants to focus on during his first full season at the helm.
United got off to a solid start in last Friday's goalless draw with newly-promoted Partick at Firhill and they now turn their attention to the visit of Terry Butcher's Caley Thistle in their first game on home soil of the new SPFL season.
McNamara said: "It's always nice to do well atyour home ground.
"It's important too because that wasn't really the case last season and it's something we have to try and correct.
"Every team wants to win as many matches as possible at home because it breeds confidence for the campaign.
"We gave ourselves a decent start away to Thistle last Friday and now we want to follow that up with a win at Tannadice."
United host free-scoring Inverness who began their campaign in impressive fashion by beating St Mirren 3-0 on the first day.
McNamara admires Butcher for the job he has done in the Highlands but he is more concerned about what his own players do on the day.
He said: "Inverness are always dangerous. Terry has them playing attacking football and they are a threat.
"But we have players as well who we feel can cause opposition teams problems.
"We can take plenty positives from our game with Thistle. The new players have settled in well and we feel we have a good balance.
"We know we have to take the chances which come our way as that can be the difference.
"As I always say to the players, it's about what we do on the day. That won't change and I've got confidence in this group of players."
Inverness boss Terry Butcher has challenged his players to better their efforts from last season after getting off to a flying start to the new campaign.
The Highlanders claimed a convincing 3-0 win against St Mirren to ensure the best possible start to the Scottish Premiership last week.
They needed eight games to claim their first league win last year, before going on to secure an impressive top four finish, and Butcher is determined to ensure the standards do not drop against Dundee United.
He said: "Things can fall into place very quickly but things can also go off the rails very quickly.
"You don't want to slip into an easy frame of mind where you allow things to dip a little bit or possibly veer off course.
"There are still 37 games to go and cup ties to be played.
"It was a great win and a good start in as much as it took us three games to get three points last year and it took us eight games to get the first win.
"So we are ahead of schedule but we want to keep well ahead of where we were last year.
"That will be some feat to achieve but it's a task that we are up to and it's a task we can't wait to get started on."
Butcher has recruited 11 new players and believes the extra competition for places can only boost their hopes of success.
He said: "What I want to do is have the boys who are in the team looking over their shoulders and saying 'If I don't perform this week at Tannadice, then there are players who are hungry, who are training well, that want to take my place'."
Source: PA
Source: PA