Despite enduring a difficult stop-start beginning to their second season in the Championship, Dundee United defender Lewis Toshney insists they are still aiming to win the league.
The 25-year-old returned to the fold at Falkirk last weekend for his first league start since the season-opener up at Inverness.
Toshney is pleased to be back in the United side and ready to help them push on in the Championship title race, starting when Morton visit Tannadice.
“It’s good to be back,” Toshney said.
“My last game was against Inverness in the win up there and I’ve been involved in the Irn-Bru Cup as well but it was good to get back in on Saturday.
“It’s just up to me now to keep my fitness up and, hopefully, stay in the team.
“I’m comfortable at right-back, centre-back, centre-midfield, just wherever the gaffer needs me or wants me to play really.
“I felt comfortable, fit and strong, so I’m feeling good.
“Morton will be a hard game, they got a good result last weekend, so their tails will be up.
“But we know we need to get the crowd behind us and get a win and, hopefully, start pushing for the top of the league.
“Once we get there, we want to stay there. We’ve only one aim this season and that’s to be promoted and win the league. We need to strive to do that.
“In training there’s been a real difference the past two weeks, we’re looking good and I think it’ll be a positive result.”
Dundonian Toshney has been particularly impressed with young Morton forward Jai Quitongo, who scored a screamer in their 2-1 win at Queen of the South last Saturday.
He said: “Quitongo’s a good player, I’ve been up against him a few times.
“But we’ve got very good players here as well, so we’ll cause them problems, too. We just need to keep a solid base and build on that clean sheet.
“As a defender, we need to pride ourselves on clean sheets and, hopefully, the strikers and midfielders will create the chances.
“Even the full-backs. I’m hoping I can create a few chances for the strikers and we can get a few goals to give the fans something to cheer about.”
It’s no secret the Tangerines have struggled in front of goal this season, netting just five in the league, but Toshney feels they are close to getting it right and has urged the fans to be patient.
He said: “I think it will click, we’ve worked on a few things this week, we’ll get it right because the gaffer’s working really hard and we’re getting closer together.
“We’ve got top players like Scott McDonald, he’s been and done it, there’s Paul McMullan and James Keatings to come back in as well as Sam Stanton — so there are top players there.
“It will click soon, we just need to be a bit patient just now. The past two weeks I’ve noticed a massive difference in the boys in training.
“We want the fans to keep coming and keep backing us and we will get it right, we will start scoring goals and getting them off their seats. We’ve got the players there to do it.
“The last few weeks or so haven’t been that great but they’ve got to keep backing us.
“It’s a hard league, it’s always been a hard league the Championship. But sometimes when you’re favourites, the pressure’s on — we’ve just got to take it one game at a time.
“We got a good result at Inverness and I think everybody thought we’d go on leaps and bounds. But it has been a stuttering start from us, we need to rectify that and get three points.”
