It was just a bit of nonsense that was prompting the noise emanating from the dressing room at Dundee United's training base in midweek but John Rankin is hoping it was a good sign.

"We had an empty water bottle and the game was to throw it into the bin," explained the experienced midfielder.

"There were a few boys fined and rather than paying their £35, £30, £40 fines, we had a game of double of quits, so if they missed, their fine doubled and we were that excited when people missed and that the fines were doubling that we were cheering.

"We had 18 boys in there singing and dancing and shouting because their mate was getting an even bigger fine."

In itself a moment of no significance, but given his thoughts on what went wrong ahead of last year's Scottish Cup decider which saw them lose out to St Johnstone, it suggests a different, potentially more helpful tone was being set if Rankin's analysis is correct.

"We never turned up for the last cup final. We were so disappointed in that, but we want to make sure it's the real United who turns up this time," is his view.

"The biggest thing is we need to enjoy ourselves this year. We never enjoyed ourselves last year. If you look back at the final, if you look at the DVD, you won't see a United player playing with a smile on their face.

"There wasn't one that day. We need to go into the game with a relaxed feeling and a determination that we are going to enjoy ourselves.

"If we come off the park with a smile on our face and a medal in our hands, having worked and fought tooth and nail, there's no reason why we can't be successful on Sunday."

His explanation for that is that they were affected by something that can be a great motivator in sport but can also be a paralysing factor, the fear of failure.

"I don't think it was expectation, I think it was more a fear of going and winning a trophy," Rankin reckons.

"People talk about expectation but we handled the expectation of the league season and the semi final of going to Ibrox and playing Rangers in a hostile atmosphere.

"I think we played with a fear that we weren't going to achieve something. We need to play with a smile and be relaxed and who knows what can happen?"

This is their opportunity to put that right and Rankin knows there will be little satisfaction to be taken from having been a team that reached two cup finals inside a year but failed both times.

"It's only an achievement if you go and win it," he pointed out.

"People keep saying we have reached back-to-back cup finals but we let ourselves down in the last one. By letting ourselves down, I don't mean by losing the final, I just mean it wasn't the real United side from last season that turned up.

"The real United who so often got bums off seats and excited crowds and played without fear. A team that cut other sides open. We just didn't see that at all on the day and hopefully this cup final you will see a United side that resembles the one that you have seen more often than not this season."

The pain lingered for some time afterwards, but this is their chance to put things right.

"I don't think we spoke much about the cup final afterwards. It was a sore point," said Rankin.

"Nobody looks back on it with fond memory, because our performance wasn't one that merited speaking about afterwards.

"We've got the chance to address that and put it right and if we put in a good performance, a battling performance with pride, passion and desire like we did against Celtic at the weekend, the fans will be right behind us."

Rankin also believes that for all the negativity which surrounded the departures of Gary Mackay-Steven and Stuart Armstrong to Celtic, the experience of last season and changes to the United squad mean they are well placed to put in an improved performance this time around.

"We are a wee bit more experienced this year," noted the 31-year-old.

"Ryan McGowan has come in and he's won a cup before and he's got experience of going to the World Cup last summer and we've got a fair number who played in the final last year so there's that wee bit more experience about us this year.

"There's not that sense of the unknown that there was last season. We are really looking forward to it and the younger lads are not fazed at all, they are excited... so who knows what can happen."