DONS boss Craig Brown will urge his Aberdeen players to forget Saturday's Co-operative Insurance Cup semi-final against Celtic at Hampden and concentrate on picking up Clydesdale Bank Premier League points against Inverness on Wednesday night.
The Dons took some confidence ahead of their trip to the national stadium when they gave the Hoops a run for their money in their SPL clash at Parkhead at the weekend only to lose to an Anthony Stokes goal. However, Pittodrie boss Brown insists his side have to focus on the trip to the Tulloch Caledonian Thistle Stadium
The former Motherwell manager told RedTV: "It had better not be a distraction. We will be ensuring the players are in no doubt that the priority is the next game we play and the priority is to get points in the SPL. So we forget totally and completely about the weekend and concentrate fully on getting the points at Inverness."
He added: "I wouldn't be dismissive of Inverness, I've been there with Motherwell and I was fortunate. Blackman scored the winner and it was fortunate because a draw would have been fairer.
"So we know their capabilities and I have the highest regard for Terry Butcher and Maurice Malpas. We must maintain our standards and hopefully get reasonably good results."
Brown confirmed reports that striker Andrius Velicka, on loan from Rangers, has been told that he has no future at Pittodrie.
The former Scotland manager said: "The thinking behind that is we have recruited Nick Blackman and it puts Andrius down the pecking order a bit.
"He has a great scoring record but he hasn't shown it here and he isn't one of our players.
"We have five strikers and I am very pleased with Vernon, Maguire, Magennis, Paton and we also Blackman on loan, so Andrius was down the bottom.
"I believe he is off on Thursday to Switzerland and may get a contract there."
Source: PA
Source: PA