Saints will showcase strengths at Pittodrie
ASURPRISE 2-0 victory over Premiership Dundee at Dens Park last January. Brendan Rodgers branding his side the best team Celtic faced in domestic competition last season.
As manager of St Mirren, Jack Ross has savoured memorable days in cup games. And one or two he would rather forget.
‘Last season, we won at Dens Park and played well for an hour at Parkhead,’ recalled the Saints boss. ‘But in the Partick Thistle game earlier this season, I got a lot of things wrong that day.’
Eight points clear in the Championship and heading back to the top flight, the July day when the Paisley side suffered a 5-0 thrashing to the Jags in the Betfred Cup at Firhill may feel like a long time ago now. However, as he prepares to face Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup tomorrow, Ross remembers it like yesterday.
‘We didn’t play well that day and Partick played very well — but I got some things wrong in terms of how I approached the game. But it was good for me because I learned from that.
‘Our strength is that we are a good side going forward. We have good pace and good dynamic players from middle to front. We don’t want to stifle their ability to do that — so that will remain.
‘But we have to come up with a way to prevent Aberdeen from picking holes in our team.
‘The biggest thing is that we do ourselves justice and play well. We want to show why we’re having the season we are.’
An Edinburgh derby aside, St Mirren’s visit to Pittodrie looks like the tie of the round. The second-best team in Scotland in each of the last three years, Aberdeen start every home cup match as favourites.
Beaten just four times in 22 Championship league games, however, St Mirren are one of Scotland’s form teams.
If there an upset in the Cup this weekend, many think it could happen in Aberdeen.
The problem is obvious. In Scotland’s second tier, St Mirren are aggressive and attacking. To have any chance of success against last season’s finalists, they must strike a balance.
‘We worked hard on how we are going to play,’ added Ross. ‘I think that if we were to go and allow their good players to play then, yes, it would be difficult for us.
‘You have to be respectful of the calibre of player they have and how long some of them have played at a consistently high level.
‘We always look at the strengths and weaknesses of the opposition and prepare accordingly.
‘We are aware that the players, individually, are going to have to play well. But they should look forward to that challenge.’
Ross laughs off the idea of catching Aberdeen cold. The last competitive match for Derek McInnes and his side came on December 30 in a 0-0 draw with Hearts.
In contrast, St Mirren have played three since then, drawing one against Morton at Cappielow and beating Inverness Caley Thistle and Dumbarton.
‘People can say they will be fresh, they will be rusty, the change in temperature could affect them,’ said Ross (below).
‘When I was at Clyde, we played Hibs in the Scottish Cup in their first game back after the winter break. It was at Easter Road. Allan Maitland, our manager, was very much like: “We’ll catch them cold!”. It was 6-0 after 55 minutes. We lost 6-1.
‘They had (Russell) Latapy and (Franck) Sauzee playing and they were fresh and buzzing. It’s hard to say how Aberdeen will be, how the break will affect them. I am sure they will approach the game in a positive way.’
A 12.15pm kick-off — and live on the BBC — second in the Premiership hosting the Championship leaders is a game people would watch in any case. Yet Celtic supporters will take an added interest to see how new signing Lewis Morgan fares against their closest rivals.
Confident the young winger will cope with the attention, Ross said: ‘The one area Lewis has grown in over the last year is his ability to deal with pressure and expectation, and also in his enjoyment of the big stage.
‘If you look at our game against Dundee United recently, it was on television, it was on a Friday night.
‘There was a lot of focus on that game because it was on during the Premiership break. He responded to that. He scored again on the television the following week. He kind of thrives on that.
‘He is learning to deal with it. He is learning to deal with an increased spotlight on him naturally because he is now a Celtic player.’
Meanwhile, Ross has managed to add former Falkirk and Liverpool midfielder Ryan Flynn and Celtic kid Mark Hill on loan before the trip north. ‘Ryan is somebody who was my No1 priority,’ added the Paisley boss. ‘We took a bit of a long time to get him in.
‘Mark has settled really well for a young man. He is very young and this is his first experience of being out on loan. ‘I’m really pleased with the two of them. I would possibly like another one in a forward area, but there’s nothing imminent at the moment.’