ERSKINE’S Blair Spittal thinks coming through last season’s nightmare campaign with Dundee United has made him a better player.

The former Park Mains High School pupil’s second season at Tannadice was a disastrous one for the club, with The Tangerines doomed to relegation from the top flight after picking up just 28 points from 38 games.

The 20-year-old admitted the club’s fall from grace, after a fifth-place finish and a League Cup final appearance in his first season on Tayside, was difficult to deal with.

But with a fresh start in the Championship under new manager Ray McKinnon, Spittal says the traumatic season will stand him in good stead for the rest of his career.

He said: “It was difficult. It’s hard to describe. The assistant manager last season said we had lost 27 points from winning positions.

“It was a run where if we conceded a goal it was a domino effect and we’d end up losing the game.

“We were playing well in some games and ending up with nothing, so it was difficult to get our heads round. But this season it’s turned around.”

He added: “You have to take as much as you can from the lows, you have to try and take positives and it does build you as as a player. It’s been a real whirlwind two years that I’ve been here but hopefully this season will have more highs than lows.”

Spittal has made an impression on the United faithful during his time in the City of Discovery, not least for his impressive scoring record against city rivals Dundee.

The midfielder has scored four goals in eight appearances against The Dee and it was one of those derbies that Spittal believes set the tone for United’s Premiership campaign last season.

The former Queen’s Park man scored a spectacular brace in three second-half minutes to put United 2-0 up at Tannadice in August.

But Paul Hartley’s men rallied and salvaged a 2-2 draw with James McPake’s 91st-minute strike.

It was a bitter-sweet game for Spittal and he admits relinquishing that lead was a blow United failed to recover from.

He said: “It’s obviously a good feeling to score in a derby but the main thing is to win those type of games.

“The one I scored two in we ended up drawing 2-2. It was a good feeling but it would’ve been a lot better if we won the game. Quite a lot of the boys felt that was a big factor last season.

“If we had won that game we would’ve been on the back of two wins and might’ve went on a bit of a run, but we gave away that lead and it was a big blow psychologically."