St Johnstone manager Tommy Wright has urged his players to forget about beating Rangers in the previous round of the League Cup, as they prepare to take on Morton in the quarter-finals of the competition at Cappielow this evening.
Despite comfortably swatting aside the challenge of the Championship leaders at Ibrox, Wright says that his side won’t be taking their lower-league opponents any less seriously tonight.
"Beating Rangers is gone for us. Our focus is on this game,” said Wright, who will be without suspended skipper Dave MacKay for the match.
"Winning against Rangers got us a bit more profile and the manner of the performance was convincing but it has no effect on Tuesday night's game.
"Generally that win should give the players a lift but the performances since then have been pretty good generally.
"We are preparing like we do for every opposition - thoroughly - and we will be ready for the game."
Despite St Johnstone’s excellent cup record in recent years, even they have not been immune to an upset at the hands of lower-league opposition, with Queen of the South knocking the then holders out of the Scottish Cup in Dumfries last season.
Perhaps that explains the wary tone which Wright adopted when speaking ahead of tonight’s encounter against a team they defeated 1-0 at the same venue, at the same stage, of the same competition in 2013.
The same score-line would suit Wright just fine tonight, and he warned his players to guard against any complacency ahead of the visit to Greenock.
"The lesson for us will be that we can't take it for granted because they have already beaten Premiership opposition this year," he said.
"It is cup football, it is about who turns up on the night.
"Cup football is littered with big teams going out to teams from lower leagues, in all levels of football in every country.
"They will be keyed up for it and we are expecting a tough game."
Morton’s Michael Tidser meanwhile says that Jim Duffy's men fully believe they can reach their first semi-final of a major cup competition since 1981.
“We’re all looking forward to the game,” he said.
“We’re going in as underdogs but the pressure is all on them to come and beat us. Hopefully we can put in a similar performance to the one we did against Motherwell and we’ll see where that takes us.
“In any cup game there is always the chance of a surprise. St Johnstone are going well in the league and have knocked Rangers out, but we’ll see how it goes on the night.
“It would be amazing to do it for the fans.”
Romario Sabajo was taken to hospital after Saturday's win over Alloa with an ankle problem and he joins Ricki Lamie, former Saint Peter MacDonald and Alex Samuel in missing out for the home side.
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