JIM SPENCE: Govan gloom is real - but Dundee United need belief to outshine Rangers

Jim Goodwin senses negativity around Rangers, but unless his Dundee United stars truly believe they can prosper at Ibrox, his exhortation to exploit that Govan gloom will fall on deaf ears.

Rangers seem a melancholy club, currently languishing nine points behind Celtic and Aberdeen.

Since liquidation, they’ve been left far behind a financially dominant Parkhead outfit, and now the Dons, who regularly beat them under Alex Ferguson, are staking a claim to replace them as Scotland’s second top team.

However, it’s still a big task for United to go to Ibrox and take anything when the records show they have just 15 wins in 114 visits, with 18 draws; it’s hardly auspicious.

However, Goodwin has built a ‘United Nations’ team at Tannadice, so there’s no reason for the kind of negative thinking that historically saw many clubs comprised of home-reared Scots, who were often beaten psychologically just by Rangers reputation while still in the tunnel.

Rangers’ support base is volatile, with anger directed at the boardroom, players and manager.

That febrile atmosphere presents United with an opportunity to unsettle the crowd and have them turn on their team.

Once, when working with Willie Miller, he told me that, when Aberdeen were in their pomp, they could tell, just by looking across at the nervously twitching Rangers players lined up at Ibrox to take the field, that they knew the Dons had the beating of them.

He knew the crowd would be on Rangers’ backs quickly if things went badly.

With a positive mind-set from the start, United can provoke a similar negative response and ensure their trip to Ibrox yields positive results.

But talk is cheap.

Rangers may not be the force of old, but taking anything in Govan will require that United don’t show the kind of respect that too easily slides into capitulation.

Along with showing a strong and robust mentality, the Tangerines also need to clearly show that they’re not there to bend the knee.