New Aberdeen boss Stephen Glass will not look beyond Livingston as he bids to make a successful start to his tenure as manager.
The Scottish Cup presents a realistic chance of silverware for the Dons and had long been targeted by the club under Derek McInnes’ management.
Livingston head north today in the round of 16 tie, with Glass potentially two games away from Hampden Park in the early days of his managerial career.
“We will approach the game how we think we will win it while respecting Livingston,” said Glass. “They came up here and won 2-0, we have not done too great against them.
“Their manager (David Martindale) did really well, started with 12 games unbeaten. Not just unbeaten, most of them were wins – so it was a winning run.
“For a new manager in this league with the number of games we have left this season, if I can do as well as David Martindale did at the start of his career then I will be doing alright, so there is a lot of respect there.
“But my job is to win the game for Aberdeen at the weekend. I am focusing on what we will do while heavily respecting what they are capable of.
“If everything goes the way we want it to go, it will be a great start. But I am aware of the flip side of the coin. Our focus is on winning this game on Saturday, that’s all I am looking at.”
As well as steering the club into Europe again and targeting success in the Scottish Cup, Glass will also be shaping his squad for next season.
A number of first-team regulars are out of contract, including Ash Taylor, Tommie Hoban, Greg Leigh and Niall McGinn, with talks reportedly under way to keep Bruce Anderson and back-up goalkeeper Gary Woods at the club.
“We will be speaking to them all,” he said. “The games are coming quick-fire and that means we have to get on top of things.
“I think players these days are less worried about what’s coming next. I am sure they will want their futures sorted, but some of them don’t mind the delay because they feel they might get something better. Our job is to make this club attractive to stay at.
“Everyone talks about producing the young players and selling them, but if we can get to the stage where the young players don’t want to leave the club then I think we have done unbelievably well. But in short, yes, we will speak to them all.”