Fit-again McCaul aiming to make up for lost time

The midfielder made his first start in the league since his summer arrival on Saturday but could not prevent United from a ‘derby’ defeat at the hands of Coleraine.

Now the former Linfield and Glenavon starlet is hoping to rekindle his career with a prolonged run in manager Glenn Ferguson’s line-up, after a number of fleeting appearances, mainly in cup competitions, so far this season.

“It was late August before I joined and I had been toying with the idea of going away over the summer,” McCaul told Times Sport.

“Everything was up in the air and my fitness wasn’t what it should be.

“The last game I played for Glenavon was the week prior to the Irish Cup final so it’s almost been like a crash course of trying to get fit and up to speed since I came here.

“The regime here is quite rigorous in terms of pre-season and at that time the boys were doing well and I was happy to wait to get my chance.”

After putting in an impressive performance against Coleraine, McCaul is anxious to help spark a turnaround in United’s recent fortunes.

“On a personal level I just want to get my fitness levels up and get a run of games.

“I’ve only really been around the first team in the past couple of weeks but it seems to be that individual errors are costing us.

“You can’t fault the lads’ work-rate on Saturday - we kept going and going - but it was one of those days which sums our run up at the minute.

“I played at Linfield when we had a couple of slumps - it’s easy when you’re winning but when you’re struggling and not getting results it seems as though things don’t go your way.

“It can be very difficult but there’s no point sulking about it or looking for sympathy - we’ve just got to get on with it.

“We’re trying to find solutions to some of the problems but things can happen that are just individual errors - we’re all human, we all make mistakes.

“But as a group, we’re 100 per cent united and determined to get out of this slump that we’re in and we’ll go again against Dungannon on Tuesday night.

“There’s nothing worse than having to wait a week to rectify Saturday’s game so we’re glad this one comes so soon.

“Obviously the fans will be disappointed but hopefully we can repay them by getting through to a semi-final.

“Some of the lads were saying that this time last year we went on an unbeaten run around Christmas and hopefully if we stick together we get back to winning ways.

“It will be a tough game and Dungannon will be up for it but we’re determined to get back to winning ways,” added McCaul.