Saints forward Cammy Smith says he's excited for the St Mirren's Scottish Cup Fourth Round tie after Saints were paired with his former club, Aberdeen.
The Buddies, who made the last 32 after a 7-1 win over Lothian Thistle Hutchison Vale last weekend, will face the Ladbrokes Premiership side at Pittodrie in January.
Smith came through the ranks at the Dons, beginning his career at the North East club as a young boy before joining St Mirren permanently in the summer.
But while he confessed that he's looking forward to it when it comes around, he knows that the Buddies main focus will be on important league fixtures in the coming weeks.
That starts this weekend as St Mirren travel to the Highlands as they face Inverness Caledonian Thistle in league action on Saturday.
I'm really looking forward to it and I'm happy we've got them," he told stmirren.com. "It'll be good to go back to Pittodrie as that's where I came through as a youth when I was nine years-old. It'll be good to see some familiar faces, but before that we have some important league games.
"I was hoping for maybe a smaller team in the hopes that we could have gone on a wee run but now its came about I wouldn't have it any other way. I'm delighted and can't wait for it to come around.
"I think it will be a big test because outwith Celtic, going to Pittodrie is probably the hardest to go to. But we'll believe we can go there and win the tie. We won't be going to just enjoy the occasion. The gaffer will have a game plan for us when it comes around.
"I'm sure it'll be an exciting game and hopefully we'll manage to cause them problems. But as I say we have important league games in front of us before that."
Saints have only played one league fixture so far this month - a 2-1 loss away to Dundee United at the start of the month.
And with the Inverness game being the first of three league matches in a week, Smith admits he and his teammates are looking forward to being back at it.
I can't wait to get back into league games to be honest," he said. "It's been a while since our last one.
"It's a big week for us with three games and it gives us a chance to get points on the board and put a marker down again. Training has been good since we came back in on Monday and we got a good win on Saturday so we are all raring to go this weekend."
The Buddies have already faced seventh placed Inverness in the league this season, defeating John Robertson's side 4-2 in Paisley.
But the 22 year-old knows the Caley Jags will be tough opposition after admitting he was impressed with them despite their defeat at the Paisley 2021 Stadium in September.
I remember the day we played them, after the game all the boys in the dressing room thought they were good.
"We respected them and credited them for their performance and I think this weekend is going to be the same. They've got seven clean sheets on the bounce so it'll be tough, but knowing the way the manager works he'll be drilling into us to believes, be confident and try to take the game to them. We'll go up there to try to get the three points.
"It's going to be a tough game but with the players we've got in the changing room and the character I'd like to think we can go and get the win.
