Oldham come to town on Saturday with new manager Dino Maamria taking charge of his first away game, and a with a welcome second league victory of the campaign under their belts from last weekend.
United boss Steven Pressley spoke again this week about the importance of turning performances into wins, particularly here at home, as he prepares for what will be another very tough game.
“I think it’s really important that we get back to winning ways at home and show the determination I think that’s required for a game like this,” he told us. “Knowing the type of manager he is, he demands hard work, he’s a manager that likes to play on the front-foot and put you under pressure.
“It will be, I would imagine, that type of game. We know that we’re at a stage of the season where a good run can take you up the table to where you want to be, and that’s what we’re looking to achieve, starting on Saturday afternoon.”
“We all know our home form hasn’t been great and we aren’t hiding away from that,” he added. “If you look throughout the league in recent weeks the crowds have dropped off in a number of games.
“I’ve said time and time again, we have a responsibility as a team to play the football and win games to encourage our supporters back. I said after Saturday’s game, we gave a good performance and showed the right attitude.
“If we continue to do that the supporters will show their appreciation. We have to do that on Saturday, we have to go about things and play with an energy the supporters appreciate.
“There is the aspect that their players will be looking to impress the new manager, but we played Stevenage several weeks ago when they had anew manager, we managed to get the correct result.
“We obviously want to get back to winning ways here at Brunton Park and we’ve worked hard this week to give ourselves the best chance of doing that.”
Speaking more about what he learned from Tuesday night’s game, he told us: “I learned I’m seeing improvements. I thought the likes of Ryan Loft showed great improvement.
“I also saw improvements in Jarrad – although there was a couple of moments, he did some really good things. I saw his heading improve, something that we’ve worked hard with him on, he was aggressive with his head for a 17-year-old.
“I think what he’ll take away is he’ll be feeling that he did some good things, but he’ll be feeling as you go up the levels and play against better players that you get punished for any small mistakes or wrong decisions.
“It’s natural for a young player to not so much make mistakes but be a little bit naïve in certain aspects of your job. That’s what you’ll understand but there were a lot of things in his game that I was really pleased about.”