“The international break was nice, it gave me a chance to go home and see the family. It was good to recharge the batteries and we are all ready to go again. We are all looking forward to Saturday after a good weeks training.

“We needed to recharge the batteries or otherwise it will catch up with us in December when we have eight league games. That is going to be a very hectic spell. It is going to be a month where the manager is going to have to rotate and use the full squad.

“When you have a bit of a break it is good to cut yourself off from football. Because I am up here living on my own everything is football. There is nothing to distract me. So, it is important sometimes to switch off although saying all that, when I was back down the road I went to watch Coventry play and I was watching football on the telly so you can’t really take me away from it!

“Things are on the up and we are all looking forward to the cup final next week but also the month ahead.

“Everyone outside the dressing room is speaking about the final. But the game against Inverness is also just as important. For me it is just as important as it is our next game.

“Also, just because it is the weekend before a cup final does not mean it is any less an important a fixture than say the first week of the season or than Rangers at Ibrox the week after. They are all the same and we need to pick up as many points as well can.

“Everyone inside the dressing room is just speaking about the Inverness game. Most managers will insist their players only look at the next game because if you start speaking about games further down the road you will lose your focus. We know we can’t do that any week at this level of football and especially up at Inverness because they are a side who will punish us if that is the case.

“Inverness are probably feeling this is a good time to play us with the cup final in mind next week. I can assure you everyone is focussing on three points on Saturday and then we will move onto the cup final preparations and stuff next week.

“The players selected on Saturday know they have to perform on Saturday if they are to play in the final. That is the case every week. Everyone needs to put in 100% to keep their place in the team. Aberdeen is a massive club and we have got a really good squad of players here as everyone knows.

“The quality of some of the boys in training who are not in the team at the moment is fantastic. They are all pushing hard.

“We all know we have a jersey to fight for.”

“We all know we have a jersey to fight for.”