Manager McKinnon hails character and desire of Dundee United team
The Tannadice outfit are now just two games away from clinching their Premiership return.
Ray McKinnon has backed his Dundee United players to hush the critics who doubted their promotion credentials.
The Tannadice outfit are now just two games away from clinching their Premiership return.
But first they will have to overcome play-off final opponents Hamilton in this week's crucial double-header.
Some have doubted whether the Terrors had the nerve for the fight after they let automatic promotion slip through their fingers, finishing the Championship campaign in third place having led at Christmas.
But manager McKinnon reckons the way his men have dispensed with Morton and Falkirk in the end-of-season shoot-out proves they have the strength of will to cope with a last examination.
Speaking ahead of Thursday's Tannadice first leg, he told ArabZone: "See the talk about our character, it wasn't coming from me. It was coming from external people.
"People are entitled to their opinions but I don't pay any attention to these people.
"I'm just really focused on what we have to do here.
"I know what this team is capable of. Do we want better quality? Of course we do.
"But what we've got is a team that for the last 11 or 12 games has shown an incredible desire to win every game. In my opinion we should have won every game based on chances created.
"That character that people are talking about has been evident in all four play-off games so far and was typified by the second-half performance against Falkirk on Friday.
"You show character on the park and that's what our players have done. We've always had belief in this set of players. We've constantly have meetings to make sure they know that.
"But we can't control what other people say and I'm not interested to be honest.
"We will do our talking on the park and I hope that come Thursday, then Sunday, our character will have shone through and we'll have a place back in the Premiership.''