Tony Watt holds Dundee United hands up in honest apology as he admits exit admission was wrong

Tony Watt has said sorry to the Dundee United fans for jumping ship – and has vowed to make it up to them with a place back in the Premiership.

Watt is thriving in his new role as vice-captain for Jim Goodwin’s men as they bid to seal a quick-fire return to the top-flight in the wake of last season’s wretched relegation. But it hasn’t always been plain sailing for the 29-year-old attacker who left Tannadice to go on loan to St Mirren back in January, before returning to Tayside to help spearhead Goodwin’s side’s promotion quest.

Now the former Celtic starlet is buzzing ahead of the big kick-off away to Arbroath on Friday night and is focused on winning a place back in the hearts of the United faithful again. Watt, who helped the Tangerines seal a 2-0 friendly win away to Carlisle United on Saturday, said: “It will take a bit of time to win the fans back. We know that, and it’s okay. You could see they were in great voice at Carlisle on Saturday, and there’s been a lot more positivity in the previous couple of games.

“We need to earn their trust back. Personally, I need to earn their trust back for going away. And I’ll do that. I’m happy with that challenge. This is a massive club and there’s a lot going right — the way the gaffer has us going now; the right characters in the building.

“It’s up to us to work hard and do the business for the manager and the staff. When I left he (Goodwin) wasn’t the manager.

“The best thing that happened to me was going to a club where the manager had been before. And not one person spoke a bad word about him. That made it easy to make the decision to come back.

“I said I wanted to leave after January and that was a mistake to say that. I’ve apologised to the manager, the owner (Mark