With league action put to one side for a week, St Mirren turn their attention towards the Scottish Cup, and Jack Ross is looking forward to the challenge.
Saints were drawn a tough away tie to Aberdeen, and with the Dons finishing second in the Scottish Premiership for the past three seasons and St Mirren sitting clear at the top of the Championship, it will no doubt be a tight affair. However, the opportunity to face some fresh opposition is welcomed by the Saints manager.
Ross, speaking to the press at the St Mirren Training Complex, said: "It's a good draw for us. Ideally you always look for the best possible chance of progression in a cup - you don't always get that. I think thereafter you want a game that excites you.
"It's nice to have that change of scenery; not just for the players, but for me and my staff.
"The preparation is different, because at this stage of the season in league games you've already played each other twice, some three times. So your preparation is a bit repetitive."
"Saturday in a new challenge," he continued. "I want us to go there and do ourselves justice, and hopefully show people why we're having the season that we are at the moment."
It wont be an easy task though, as Aberdeen went all the way to the final in last years competition, only to be bested by a last gasp winner from Celtic.
The last time St Mirren came toe-to-toe with a Premiership club was the 5-0 defeat to Partick Thistle in the Betfred Cup group stage in July.
Jack Ross knows the team will have to be at their best to prevent another defeat like that.
The gaffer said: "We didn't play well on the day and Partick played very well, but I got some things wrong in terms of how I approached the game. That was good for me, because I learned from that.
"Our strength is we are a good side going forward, we've got good pace and we have dynamic players middle to front, so we don't want to stifle their ability to do that.
"But obviously we have to come up with a way to prevent Aberdeen from picking holes in our team."
