Motherwell boss Stuart Kettlewell says talk of their Premier Sports Cup semi-final is banned – because they can’t afford to take focus off the Premiership.
The Lanarkshire side have a Hampden date with destiny against Rangers on November 3, but there are league clashes against Hibs, Dundee, Celtic and Dundee United to come before their trip to the National Stadium.
And Kettlewell says full focus is on Hibs at Easter Road this afternoon.
“I’ve not heard one murmur of the semi-final from the group of players, and I think you could see our motivation was purely on St Mirren at the weekend,” said Kettlewell.
“We could have got caught up with ourselves, started to read our own press, but if anybody starts to mention that or get carried away with themselves, they’ll be firmly put back in their box. That’s not a threat, that’s just how it has to be.
“These games we have to face in the lead-up to that are far too tough, and if we start detracting 20 or 30 per cent of our attention somewhere else, we’re going to leave ourselves seriously short for games.
“Our 100 per cent focus is on Hibs this weekend, because of how difficult a task it’s going to be to get anything there, and as the weeks go on you start to take care of each challenge that’s in front of you.”
Kettlewell expects a tough test against David Gray’s Hibs in the capital.
He said: “Whenever you go to Easter Road it’s always a test. I feel they’re a really open, expansive side. I think they try and stretch you, they’ve got a lot of pace in their team, they’ve invested heavily in their group to try and build on last season.
“With Davie coming is as the manager, they’ll be looking for a better season than what they had last year – we all do.
“I watched them at Ibrox at the weekend [1-0 Rangers win], I thought they really grew into the game and carried a real threat.
“By the end of that one you could see they were playing with good confidence as well.
“It will be a difficult game for us, but I always think it is when you go to Easter Road.”
With Motherwell fourth in the Premiership and in a semi-final, Kettlewell could be forgiven for thinking life is good – but that’s exactly a scenario he wants to avoid.
He said: “We’ve had a decent start to the season in both the cup and the league.
“I always ward against this feeling of being too comfortable and thinking you’re in a better place than what you actually are.
“I still think there’s loads more to come from us as a group, lots of different elements that we can do slightly better in games, and that we can play better than what we did on Saturday against St Mirren.
“It’s trying to sustain that, trying to find a level of consistency, and when you sit there on the Saturday night you can feel as if you’ve done a lot of what you set out to achieve to this point.
“There is loads for us to enjoy, loads for us to like, and the main message from me to the players and the club is that we strive for more of those good feelings on a Saturday night, trying to see if we can be competitive in cup competitions.
“I think if we can continue to do that and get some of the levels out of the guys that are playing, it gives us every chance to do so.”
Motherwell have Dan Casey suspended and Jair Tavares is ineligible as he’s on loan from Hibs.
Follow Lanarkshire Live Sport onX via@LanLiveSport, like us onFacebookor find us onInstagramfor the latest sports news, pictures and video.