Hamilton goalkeeper Michael McGovern knows he will have to be on his toes today as he faces Northern Ireland teammate Billy Mckay.

On-loan Mckay has found his form again with Dundee United after a frustrating spell with Wigan, and McGovern says he presents the biggest danger to Hamilton as they travel to Tannadice.

“I know Billy Mckay really well from Northern Ireland, he’s a top player,” he said.

“He scored last week and he always knows where the goals are.

“If we can keep him quiet it would go a long way to us getting a result. They have other threats throughout their team - but Billy is the main one.

“He’s similar to Adam Rooney in that he’s always on the move, looking for sniffs here and there, and always sharp in the box.

“Billy was unlucky at Wigan. He never really got a chance, which was a surprise as I thought he’d be a success down there given the opportunity.

“We’ll need to be on our toes to watch him.

“It’s hard to know what to expect from Dundee United as we’ve not played them since the new manager came in.

“By all accounts they played well against St Johnstone last Saturday where they changed their system.

“It’s going to be a more difficult game than when we played them here. We were quite comfortable that day.

“It will be a different kettle of fish at their place with a new manager.

“We are confident going into games though and there’s no reason why we can’t get three points.”

McGovern says that Accies are ready to take advantage of any fragility in United’s confidence, and insists that their own belief hasn’t been affected by a winless run that now stretches to six games.

“If there is any vulnerability there you want to take advantage,” he said.

“The first goal could be crucial.

“We won’t focus too much on them though. It’s about ourselves and the first half against Aberdeen last week was a really good performance.

“If we get the same again we can definitely get a result.

“We’re not concerned about not winning for a few games. We’ve lost a couple and drawn a few but the performance levels have been high.

“If we keep performing like that the results will come.”

McGovern is determined to prove the pre-season doubters wrong who had Hamilton marked for relegation.

“Everyone looks at the status of the club, we’re just wee Hamilton,” he said.

“But you’ve got to look a bit deeper. We recruited a lot of players in the summer and a lot of people wouldn’t have known much about them.

Guys like Gramoz Kurtaj and Antons Kuakins have come and done really well.

“The likes of Dundee United have lost a lot of key players. They must have lost their four best players in the last 12 months which makes it tough.

“I don’t think there’s a lot between the teams. You’ve got Celtic and Aberdeen, with Hearts, but on our day we are capable of beating anyone.

“It makes it an exciting league as teams can take points off each other.

“But we don’t worry about anyone else. We’ll concentrate on ourselves and trying to have a good season.”