Dundee United Captain Ross Graham spoke to the broadcast media to preview our William Hill Premiership clash with Celtic on Matchday 17.
The Blairgowrie-born stopper discussed his return to action following a long-term hamstring injury, securing an elusive clean sheet against the Steelmen and going toe-to-toe with the Champions with no fear ahead of the Hoops’ visit to the City of Discovery.
ON SATURDAY’S SHUTOUT
We’re really happy with the clean sheet at the weekend. That was one of our main goals, to go into that game and make sure that we shut up shop.
We’ve not done enough of that at this season, so we’re very glad to get back to getting a clean sheet. You need that ahead of a game against Celtic at home, who will be hurting after what happened to them at the weekend.
ON CELTIC’S TUMULTOUS RUN OF FORM AND EMBRACING THE UNDERDOG TAG
Celtic are always a top side, no matter what form you get them in – I’m not sure there’s ever a good time to get them. They’ve got really high quality players, so we need to be switched on in that aspect.
They’re not going to be on this run of form forever, so we can try and make sure that it doesn’t change for them tomorrow night. There’s pressure in any game that you go into, but we’ll probably still go into the game tomorrow night as underdogs.
We’ve been better at that this season against the bigger teams, so we’ll use that to our advantage as well and try and go and get the three points.
ON TAKING THE INITIATIVE WHEN THE WHISTLE BLOWS
We’ve gone behind in most games we’ve played this season and we’re trying to cut that out. We focus on ourselves because we know how much we can hurt them.
We’ll play on the front foot, especially at Tannadice. We’ve got our home support as well, so we’ll get as much use out of them as we can, and they’ll drive us forward to try win the game.
ON FINDING CONSISTENCY DURING THE ACTION-PACKED FESTIVE PERIOD
In recent weeks we’ve had a couple of good performances and we’ve just been lacking that cutting edge. We’re just looking to be a bit more consistent in these next few weeks and over the next month when there’s plenty of games to do that.
All teams go through these spells at some point in the season. It might not be a bad time for us to go through this, considering there’s a lot of games between now and the end of the year.
We can pick up a good few wins and start climbing up that table.
ON HIS FALSE START TO 2025/26 AND FIGHTING FOR HIS PLACE IN THE TEAM
I was gutted, especially coming off the back of a good season last year and picking up the injury at the very start of the season. There was a lot of freshness to the squad. I was looking forward to that, playing with new players and the European games.
I was disappointed to miss them. But thankfully I got the hamstring sorted and now I’m ready to kick on for the rest of the season. I feel like I’ve come back at a good time where there are plenty of games coming up.
I’ve loved being back out there and playing the three games so far. I’m looking to get as many more as possible under my belt before the end of the year.
It’s felt amazing. You don’t realise how much you miss it when you’re out for so long. It’s just buzzing to get back on the grass, training every day and playing at the weekends. It gives you something to look forward to now.
I’m looking to solidify my position in the defence over the next few weeks whilst there are plenty of games to get back into the swing of things.
ON LEADING BY EXAMPLE
I’m trying to lift their spirits as much as I can. I’ve been through a couple of bad spells before in the past in previous seasons.
So, I’ve got that experience of knowing what to do and knowing what to say as well. I’ll just try and lift their spirits and keep them motivated going into these games.
