Dundee United manager Jackie McNamara is happy the first Old Firm match for three years has meant the New Firm semi-final has slipped under the radar in some parts.
The hype surrounding Sunday’s meeting between Ronny Deila’s Hoops and Kenny McDowall’s Gers has been predictable, and has taken focus away from this afternoon’s semi-final between the Dons and United for many.
For the Aberdeen and United supporters there is only one match that matters this weekend with more than 30,000 expected at Hampden this afternoon.
But United manager McNamara reckons both teams are content to remain in the background. For the purists the match between the Dons and United may be the more entertaining football spectacle, but former Celtic player McNamara knows all too well the appeal of Sunday’s Old Firm encounter.
He said: “I’m quite happy for our match to go slightly under the radar and I think Derek McInnes will be exactly the same.
“Despite all of the attention that is on Sunday’s game, we are fully focused on our match.
“Attention has been on the other semi-final since the draw was made.
“I can understand why there is so much focus on the Old Firm match because it has been such a while since they played each other.
“It is a refreshing change for us and keeps us out of the spotlight.
“And I am delighted we are playing first rather than second.
“The pitch may be a little cut up for the game on Sunday but hopefully it is good to go on the Saturday.”
During his time in charge of Partick Thistle, McNamara penned a comedy sitcom called The Therapy Room – a story of a Scottish junior player who signs for an English Premier League side.
Screen writing remains a hobby for the United manager who will be hoping the script for tomorrow’s semi-final has a happy ending for those who have their own Tangerine dreams.
He said: “I had done that before I had started doing my badges.
“It was a side-track. I was doing it as a book.
“A lot of people do biographies or autobiographies and it was my way of doing certain things in a certain way – I don’t believe you can do an autobiography without hurting people – certainly not if you want to be honest in the book.
“It is something I might go back to as I have gathered a lot of material since then and I have certainly dealt with a lot more characters.
“It was a form of escapism for me from dealing with a lot of the things you don’t like dealing with in management.
“I still write little notes, as I did when I was a player, but I am not sitting down writing scripts at the moment.”
United suffered a 2-0 defeat at the hands of Aberdeen when they met at Tannadice last month and McNamara knows it will take a major performance from his team if they are to dump the holders out of the competition.
He added: “Aberdeen have enjoyed a terrific season so far and they have done consistently well, especially when it comes to not conceding.
“But we’re just three points behind them in the league and I believe we’ve done well to hang in there with them.
“On Saturday, it will all be down to whoever does better on the day.”