JOHN Rankin, the Dundee United midfielder, voiced fears last night that the Tannadice club's relegation from the Ladbrokes Premiership could be the start of a downward spiral which lasts for years. Mainstays of the Scottish top division for 20 seasons, United now face a hugely uncertain period, with question marks over the future of much of the playing staff, manager Mixu Paatelainen and the ownership of the Thompson family. While the Ladbrokes Championship may be a less exacting division in 2016-17 than it was this year, Rankin is well aware that there are no guarantees that the club will come straight back up.

"Obviously you worry," said Rankin. "You look now and it’s Championship football next season. I hope there’s investment to get out of it because you don’t want to be there for too long.

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"You can be stuck in a spiral – in the Championship for one, two, three seasons and before you know it’s six, seven, eight. It took Rangers two years. It’s taken Hibs two, maybe three, possibly four, We don’t know. Look at other teams that have gone down – Dunfermline ended up in League Two. When you get in that downward spiral it’s hard to get out of."

Rankin, who as thing stand is without a contract offer to stay on for next season, said it would help if the club made a statement clarifying the position of the manager, and also the chairman, as soon as possible. "That would definitely help," said Rankin. "If the chairman or the club came out and made a statement on what way it is."

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The midfielder feels the 2-1 defeat to Dundee, from a goal up, summed up a season in which he and his team-mates had displayed 'mental weakness'. “This is the lowest point of my career," said Rankin. “It would take me all night to talk about what’s gone wrong. The short of it is that we don’t take our chances and we lose too many goals. It’s hard to win games when you’re like that.

“There were questions in the dressing-room, we had an argument among ourselves," he added. "There were two, three or four voices after the game and you can probably guess who they were. The manager had his say and a few of us has our say as well, but it’s all too late because it’s gone now.

“I’m absolutely devastated but that sums up our season. The amount of times we’ve been 1-0 and lost the game must be in double figures. We lost another goal from a set piece, I couldn’t say how many of them we’ve lost this year."

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Craig Wighton, the scorer of the winning goal in injury time which condemned United to the championship, said things didn't get much better than this. He could have joined United along with his pals Ryan Gauld and John Souttar as a boy but signed for his boyhood heroes instead.

“All my family are massive Dundee fans and were at the game," said Wighton. "It’s massive for them. But it’s a good three points and underlines the progress we’ve made because in recent years we’ve had some poor derby results.

The Herald:

“It’s brilliant to go undefeated against them all season," he added. "A lot of people have said we don’t turn up in big games or bottled opportunities and the Rangers Scottish Cup defeat was very frustrating but we’ve had a couple of good results against Celtic and we’re unbeaten against United so it shows we can produce when it matters.

“I’m sure my goal will be talked about but for me it’s just another goal to add to the ones I’ve got for Dundee. People will get carried away but I’m still young and haven’t played many games so the most important thing for me is to kick on and try and score a few more before the end of the season."