Kai Fotheringham thanks his unsung Dundee Utd hero for helping him battle back into Jim Goodwin's team

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Frustrated Kai Fotheringham has finally forced his way back into the Dundee United team and thanked his mental coach for helping him keep his head in the game.

The youngster was a key figure in United’s promotion out of the Championship but in the Premiership he has had to be patient and bide his time. Fotheringham only got his first top-flight start against Rangers last week and admitted that mind coach, John Johnstone, has helped him keep going and get through the lows of not getting his opportunity.

Fotheringham confirmed: “I’ve been working with a mental coach, John Johnstone of Football Mindsets, who has really helped me with things this season. He works on different aspects of the game with me, I started with him this time last year. John has been very good with me, he sends me a wee reminder every Monday morning to tell me to keep at it and remind people why I’m here.

“So I have to thank him a lot because this season has been really challenging and something I’ve not been used to.

“Even when I was doing well I felt it important to focus on the mental side of the game because it’s so important.
“He works on tiny little techniques to have during games, if you’re not having the best of times how you cope with it and bounce back. Then away from football, how you conduct yourself and live your life. “How you treat football and the supporters.”

Fotheringham is looking to build on things when St Mirren visit Tannadice. “Hopefully I did enough at Rangers,” he added. “I felt after the first 20 minutes I kept Jefte pretty quiet and it was a good feeling being back in. The gaffer showed he has trust in me to play me in a game like that.

“Obviously Rangers are struggling just now but our press had them back in and in the second half we came off it a bit to be more defensive. It’s about keeping it going against St Mirren now. Rangers are three points ahead of us and St Mirren are two behind, so it’s quite tight in there. We’ll be going into the weekend trying to extend the gap between us and them.”

Fotheringham was a target for Crawley Town in the summer but Jim Goodwin wanted to keep him. He explained: “I didn’t know too much about the interest in the summer, it was between the club and Crawley.

“I was focused on my football here at United and looking forward to being here. He (Goodwin) told me I’m in his plans, keep working hard, doing what I’m doing and the chance will come.

“I wasn’t doing much wrong but the team is playing well - which is a good thing - so it was tough getting back in. I have been working on bits of my game, being more tidy on the ball and getting physically stronger too.

“You have to do that because of the standard coming up to the Premiership, it’s much higher than last season. I have been working on all those things and it’s up to me to take the chances when I get them.”

Fotheringham is out-of-contract in the summer but it is expected he will agree a new Tannadice deal. “I just focus on the now and when it comes to that I’ll deal with it,” the Scotland under-21 cap insisted. "Football changes so quickly, you saw that last weekend where I went from not playing to starting at Ibrox.

“There are so many things that can happen, whether it’s injuries or form or whatever. So it’s just about focusing on the now. I’ve been at Dundee United for five or six years now so that’s all I think about.”

Dundee United welcome back Ross Graham but Ross Docherty, Kristijan Trapanovski and Craig Sibbald miss out.

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