Ryan Strain relishes in his bold Dundee United pre-season prediction that is fast becoming a reality

Jim Goodwin's men are currently sitting as Scotland's third force and pushing for European football next term

Ryan Strain is not surprised that Dundee United are sitting pretty as the Premiership’s third force.

The Australian boldly predicted, when he made the move to Tannadice in the summer, that Jim Goodwin’s side would be pushing for Europe. It was a big call for a newly-promoted side but so far they have defied the odds. Strain now wants to make sure they finish the job off in style by getting their passports out. United return to domestic action when they travel to champions Celtic this weekend.

Strain stated: “No, when I first came I'd seen the signings we had. Obviously we haven't really played together, but I said that hopefully we'd be pushing for European spots. That's what we can look at now, but obviously not get too ahead of ourselves. We just want to finish in the top six and then push for that. I’m not surprised, but for a newly promoted team, I think most teams would be thinking they're sitting well above their weight, but I don't think we are. I think we make our own luck and we've just got to keep going.”

United have hit a bit of a bump in recent weeks. They went out of the cup and lost their last two league games to Rangers and Kilmarnock. Strain knows his side has got character. They have shown it with the number of late goals they have scored this season. Strain knows that could be important to find again going into the full push for the top six split.

The former St Mirren full-back claimed: “Yes, and that's it. If you've got it in your head that you can win games late and you feel like you're going to win every game you go into, there's no reason why you can't win games.”

United head into the lion’s den against Celtic but United showed at Tannadice last time out how to nullify Brendan Rodgers’ side. He will be hoping the United rearguard can produce something similar.

The full-back said: “I think it's when we played against Celtic when I was at St Mirren and you know they're always bringing on players who can score late, so that's a credit to everyone in this team. We've got players that can come on and make a massive impact, so I think for them, they're probably thinking they could score at any time. “It must put doubt in their heads.”