Aberdeen must forget cup exit and focus on league - assistant boss Tony Docherty

Aberdeen assistant manager Tony Docherty has urged his side to shrug off last week's William Hill Scottish Cup heartbreak at Hearts and get back to winning ways at Ross County on Sunday.

The Pittodrie outfit were far from their best in the 1-0 fourth-round defeat by the Jambos at Tynecastle. Docherty is keen for the Dons, six points behind Premiership leaders Celtic, to resume encouraging league form against the Staggies, who are fresh from their 1-0 Scottish Cup replay win over Dunfermline in midweek.

The Hearts result was hugely disappointing,'' he told REDTV.There is no getting away from that.

We just need to dust ourselves down and focus on our league campaign.

We must make sure we channel all our energies from the disappointment of going out of the cup and focus everything on the league campaign.

The Hearts defeat was the first game we have lost in nine games.

We are still undefeated in the league since that since the defeat against Celtic in Glasgow (in October) and we want to continue that run of form.

We know how difficult the trip to Dingwall will be. I was up at the game on Tuesday night for their cup tie.

They are a difficult opponent who play to their strengths. We are going to have to be at our best to continue our current run of league form.''

Aberdeen lost 2-0 in Dingwall in October but beat the Staggies 3-1 at Pittodrie the following month and manager Derek McInnes is hoping Sunday's fixture signals the start of a grandstand finale to the season.

What we have to do now is focus all our energies into the league campaign and on to the last 17 games of the season,'' he said.

Ross County is a tough game. We didn't play well up there earlier in the season when they beat us.

We had one of best second-half performances against them here to get the win.

A positive result is important for a lot of reasons but we want to keep our unbeaten run in the league going by picking up all three points.''