Dundee United boss Peter Houston has dismissed the theory the tag Scottish Cup holders will bring an extra burden of expectation and pressure when his team enter the competition at the weekend.
It was inevitable that minds would be cast back to last May’s Hampden success when United prepared to get their cup defence under way with the rest of the big boys at the fourth round stage.
After the draw paired the Tannadice club with their opponents in the 2010 final, Ross County, there was even less chance of them making a low key start to what they hope will be another long cup run on Saturday.
“There’s no added pressure as far as I’m concerned,” Houston insisted.
“We always take one game at a time and never look too far forward, taking the draw as it comes that’s what we did last year.
“We put pressure on ourselves to do well in every game we play, never mind the fact that this is the cup and we won it last time round.
“This week we certainly won’t be thinking about last year’s final that’s long gone now.
“Yes, we’d love to have another good run and try to retain the trophy, but we know we’ve got a tough draw.
“I watched Ross County at Dens on Sunday and they only had one change from the team that faced us in last year’s final.”
Houston doesn’t mind admitting that a repeat of the fourth-round fillip his team got 12 months ago would be welcome.
He recalled, “I’d only been in charge for three games, and when we faced Partick Thistle we were coming off a defeat to Aberdeen and a heavy one to Rangers.
“The win against Thistle changed our season. I felt we never looked back after gaining confidence from that first Scottish Cup tie.
“Hopefully we can have a similar experience this time and kick on.”
United’s preparations have been helped by their return on Tuesday to the green, green grass of the home of golf.
For the first time since November, Houston was able to oversee a training session at their St Andrews training base, and it has been a timely boost to squad morale.
“It’s great to be back”, he said.
“It’s an excellent facility we’ve got here and it’s been very frustrating to be away from it for so long.
“You can only get so much out of training on the beach, in the gym or at Soccerworld.
“We had a good session today and the boys really enjoyed getting back on grass.”
Danny Swanson trained with the the squad, having recovered from his vomiting bug.
Houston said, “We isolated Danny and thankfully he’s been the only one who has been affected.”