DUNDEE United’s Scott Fraser says people can tip Hibs all they like to cruise to victory in the Championship but he believes his side have proved they can clinch it from under their noses.
United turned up the heat on Neil Lennon’s men with a 1-0 win in their top-of-the-table clash at Tannadice on Friday which moved them joint level on points with the much-fancied Easter Road outfit.
Fraser, however, is happy to let others talk up Hibs’ Championship chances.
“I don’t know if it’s so much them. I think it’s more folk from outside who think Hibs are going to run away with the league. That’s up to them, but we’re fully aware that if we play to our potential we can go on and win it. That drives us on. We don’t need to prove anything to anyone. There’s no pressure on us because everyone expects Hibs to win the league.
“We can go about our business. That’s 11 games unbeaten for us now, which is a fantastic run, and we’re looking to keep that going.”
United’s confidence soared further from the minute Tony Andreu’s 72nd-minute penalty secured them the points after Cammy Bell had earlier saved Martin Boyle’s spot-kick for the visitors.Fraser admits the lift they will take from that victory will allow them to kick on even further with the hectic festive period fast approaching.
“It’s massive psychologically. We spoke about it before the game,” the 21-year-old Dundonian said. “Nothing is won in December but to beat them when they’ve been made favourites by most people is big.
“In our changing room it’s different. We believe we’re the favourites to go and win games.”
Over at Hibs, Andrew Shinnie says they won’t be found “sulking’’ in the wake of their set-back.
“We had the chance to go six points clear, so we’re kicking ourselves,” Shinnie said. “But we’ve just got to pick ourselves up. It’s disappointing but we’ve another game on Saturday against Dumbarton and we’re still top. So we just need to go and put another run together.
“We’ll work hard in training this week. As the manager said to us, it’s a defeat but we just need to get on with it. There’s no point sulking and moping around. We didn’t play as well as we can. We know that. It’s disappointing.”
Shinnie praised Ray McKinnon’s team for their unbeaten run but is more focused on helping his club to return to winning ways.
“They’ve got the results in games and you’ve got to give them credit. They’ve made it level now but we’ll get over it. It’s only our second defeat of the season in December, so it’s not bad going.
“It was a big, big game for us but we just didn’t play the way we can play. We’ll bounce back next Saturday and things can change so we just need to win next Saturday and see what happens.”
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