Paul Hartley does not think victory over Arbroath will put Cove Rangers in a comfortable position in the Championship survival battle.
A win for Cove will put them seven points clear of the Red Lichties, who sit in the relegation play-off spot.
Cove have won just once since Hartley’s return to the dugout at the start of last month: a 1-0 triumph over Partick Thistle a fortnight ago.
Additional scrutiny will be on Saturday’s encounter due to the two teams’ precarious positions in the second-tier, but, even if Cove take three points, Hartley will not be content.
“It’s the next big game,” he said. “We’ve got 12 games left and we’re trying to get as many points as we can.
“This is the next really important game and everybody will look at our league positions. But I don’t read too much into it.
“A win would give us a seven-point cushion, but knowing how the Championship works, that’s not enough to see us through to the end of the season. There’ll be more twists before the end of the season.
“The league is so unpredictable between the top and the bottom. Anybody can take points off each other. No result will surprise me in this division.
Arbroath missed out on the remarkable feat of getting promoted to the Premiership as a part-time side last season, losing to Caley Thistle in the play-off semi-finals.
But they have found the going much tougher this time around, with just four wins to their name and the worst home record in the Championship.
“Teams that are part-time in the Championship tend to be down the bottom, because you’re facing teams who are full-time and have more time to prepare,” added Hartley.
“The two nights we have with our players we try to give them as much information as possible.
“What they did last year was incredible – it was a brilliant season. But it’s very hard to do that again the following season.”
Hartley wants Cove to make the Balmoral Stadium as formidable a place as it used to be.
The Aberdeen side long prided themselves on their home form on their rise from the Highland League to the Championship, but this season has yielded just five wins from 13 games in the north-east.
“We’ve not really used it as much this season (as a fortress), when we’ve been strong over the years here,” said Hartley.
“It’s important we get our home form back to what it used to be here, where teams know they’d been in a game.
“We haven’t really seen that for the majority of the season.
“The home form would really shoot you up the table and we’ve not found that consistency here.”
Fraser Fyvie is out until the end of the season after ankle reconstruction surgery, while Blair Yule and Brody Paterson (both ankle) are also sidelined.
Conversation