A triple encounter with Celtic would faze most players, but Dundee United's Henri Anier remains convinced they can arrest their decline of late by triumphing against the growing odds currently facing them
It's make-or-break time for United who must somehow recapture top form in time for hosting Ronny Deila's side in next Sunday's Scottish Cup quarter-final tie, before contesting with them the League Cup Final the following weekend, and rounding it all off by facing the Parkhead club for a third consecutive time in the Scottish Premiership on March 22.
Their preparation has been far from ideal with three league defeats in their last four outings, and this latest reverse at the hands of ninth-placed Partick Thistle came after two goals in the space of seven minutes towards the end of the first-half, with precious few signs to suggest they were ever capable of mounting a comeback�� thereafter.
When you add to this the joint departure of former influential duo Gary Mackay-Steven and Stuart Armstrong to Celtic during the January Transfer Window, it's not exactly the sort of build-up which would breed confidence ahead of such a crucial stage in their season.
Yet Anier, their optimistic Estonian strike, takes a different perspective and carries a belief that victory in all three encounters isn't beyond Jackie McNamara's side.
Anier said: "We must be positive and the fans must be positive. We definitely want to win this game. We are definitely good enough to beat Celtic.
"We must forget this game and the cup games will be a lot different. The cup game is a quarter-final but we must treat it like a final."
"We know ourselves we are capable of doing that and we will definitely go into the Celtic game with confidence. We will give it our best and will go for a win These are three massive games to look forward to. I think everyone is up for it.
"It doesn't matter that they are three games in a row. They are three different occasions but it is a good thing and we must see it as a positive and try to win them all. We must now play at our maximum performance. They are definitely favourites and maybe that is a good thing for us. We will go into the games as underdogs but we don't have any fear going into them."
Partick Thistle, for their part, are all of a sudden setting their sights on the kind of run which they hope will see them leave behind any such threat of relegation.
Until Saturday's comfortable win over Dundee United at Tannadice, all the signs suggested Alan Archibald's side were heading one way only which was towards a basement battle for survival.
But Stephen O'Donnell's wonderful 34th minute opener was soon supplemented by Ryan McGowan's own goal in 41 minutes, and from then they rarely looked back as they attempt to push onwards and upwards.
Abdul Osman, their Ghanaian midfielder, certainly thinks so and he sees no reason why the Jags can't kick on.
He said: "It happens in football sometimes that you have the players but it doesn't click out there on the pitch. It clicked for us today and hopefully that's us turned a corner.
"Are we looking at how many wins we need for safety or are we looking up the table? We are just taking it each game at a time and see what happens. But the defeats have to stop It was a very good performance from start to finish. It's five on the bounce we had lost and we needed that to change - thankfully we got the win today."
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