Martin Canning not worried about potential Rangers showdown

Martin Canning will block out any thoughts of a potential William Hill Scottish Cup clash with Rangers so he can focus on getting Hamilton through their replay against Dunfermline.

Hamilton boss Martin Canning
Published 13th Feb 2017

Martin Canning will block out any thoughts of a potential William Hill Scottish Cup clash with Rangers so he can focus on getting Hamilton through their replay against Dunfermline.

Accies and Ladbrokes Championship side Pars have to do it all again on Tuesday night, following Saturday's 1-1 draw at the SuperSeal Stadium, with the winners going to Ibrox in the quarter-finals.

The Hamilton boss, however, stressed the importance of concentrating fully on Dunfermline.

He said: "You have to do your job first. You have to go and win the game then if you go through it, you go and play Rangers at Ibrox.

"I think that is a big incentive for everybody. But I am pretty sure Dunfermline will be saying the same.

"For us, it is so important that we go and do our job properly, we don't even think about that until we get ourselves through.

"It is the same as the league. I would never look two or three games ahead in the league.

"The next game is the most important. As soon you look too far ahead you start taking your eye off the ball.

"There will be no talk about it, nothing mentioned about it. It is a case of 'let's go and do our job' tomorrow night."

Canning will remind his players to take no notice of the fact that Accies are favourites to take care of the lower-league side.

He said: "It shouldn't change the mindset and that is something we spoke about last week.

"There is not a lot between Morton, Dunfermline, Falkirk, Dundee United, Hibernian and the bottom five or six in the Premiership.

"They might not have the same depth but the starting line-ups are very similar in terms of quality.

"We know we need to compete and get the mentality right and if we do that I believe we have the quality to win the game but it will be another difficult game."