Manager Barry Robson spoke to the media on Thursday lunchtime to preview our Scottish Gas Scottish Cup tie with Clyde. RedTV subscribers can watch in full now.

“I think after all the games we played over the previous few months it was good to get the players rested up. Rest is as important as training sometimes and obviously we’ve got a tough schedule coming again. It was a perfect opportunity to try and rest some of the players up and also the staff who have been working really hard. It’s good to give everyone a break. We’ve been back for about seven or eight days. We’ve had some good training sessions in us and we are ready to go again.

“We built a squad in the summer and we signed 13 or 14 players. Obviously it’s a new team and it will evolve over the coming months and years and that’s why we did it in the summer. In this window, it is notoriously not a great window but if we find something that we think will improve our team, it’s something we will look at seriously. We are always active in everything that we do. We’re always looking at the markets to see what is there and what isn’t. We are quite forward thinking in that regard. I am really pleased with the players that we’ve got. As I said a lot of them we signed in the summer. On the other hand if there’s something that comes that we think we want to do, we will do it.

“Since Ian McCall has come into Clyde you’ve seen a bounce in them. I’ve watched their last two games and you can see that he is trying to get them to play and to think a bit more. I can see the system they’ve tried to play with, wherever they try and change that on the day, I don’t know. They’ve got some good players. It is a huge game for them and they will be right up for it and it’s a game we’re going to need to be at our best. Every game you’re going to need to be your best and sometimes these games are even more tricky. Our players have been told in no uncertain terms that we are going out and we perform at our best.

“I think he (Ian McCall) has done about 800 to 900 games as a manager. If you do that many games then you’re not a bad manager. He’s a good manager. I actually worked under him as well. He signed me and sold me on again. He was brilliant for me and I had a lot of time for him. He is a very good manager and he knows the game. He’s managed in every league in Scotland and he understands every league in Scotland and knows all of the players. He knows all of the systems, he knows the way teams want to play. It’s going to be a really difficult game with a really good manager and some good players. The players know that we have to be at our very best.

“We want to try and do that (have a good run in the Scottish Cup). We got to the final of the last cup and it would be brilliant if we could go and get into a final again. There’s so many difficult games and hard games to get there. We need to take it a game at a time. This is not going to be an easy game by any means and as I said we need to be at our very, very best.

“We want to be up the table. I know we’ve got some games in hand but they are not easy games. We’ve got a schedule coming which is a lot of games. That’s where we want to be we want to be getting lots of games and playing games. We’re really looking forward to the second half of the season and we need to make sure that our performances are better in the league. The last one was very good, the one before that wasn’t so good. So it’s building that momentum and consistency and getting a rhythm. That’s where we want to try and be in the second part of the season.

“Connor Barron is a brilliant kid and he’s come through here with me. I know him inside out. I know how to get the best out of him and I love him as a player. He’s an Aberdeen boy. He is someone that really catches your eye when he plays. He’s a bundle of enthusiasm, a top talent. It’s taken us a bit of time this season to get him back to where he needs to be. There has been a lot of hard work. I had a similar injury to what he had so I was able to help him with that. He’s a really good kid who wants to do well. If there is any news on his contract situation then I am sure that you guys will be the first ones to know.

“Team news wise, everybody is fine apart from Jimmy McGarry who is struggling a bit with his hamstring so we will wait and see how he is.”