Graeme Shinnie was the player who spoke to the media on Thursday to preview the Premier Sports Cup semi-final at Hampden on Saturday evening.

“It is a quick turnaround ahead of another massive match on Saturday, so our full focus the past couple of days has been preparing for the game, recovering, getting the body right and getting the legs going again.

“We have had a great start to the season. But, and I know it is boring and we keep going on about it, it is only a start. Nothing has been achieved.

“You get praise for doing well but at this stage of the season nothing has been achieved.

“It is obviously where we want to be and we have had a great start but there is a long way to go and even if you look at the league table, I am sure it is not going to finish the way it is now.

“Teams will move about.

“Once you get to the more business end of the season then you can start looking at that kind of stuff. Right now we are fully focused on winning games and that is what we have been doing and that is what is good for us and that is what we will continue to do. Looking forward to Saturday.

“It is a hard one (when it comes to speaking to the younger players), it is letting them have that little bit of excitement because it is good and we are in a good place so it is about enjoying that, but it is also about keeping our foot on the pedal because nothing has been achieved.

“It is about trying to continue what we are doing, trying to continue to get better. We are still reasonably early in the manager’s era, so we are still learning as we go and there are still areas in our game where we need to get better. We know that.

“It is enjoying it while we are at it because winning games is enjoyable but on top of that it is keeping right on top of it and keeping our foot firmly on the gas.

“There is a strong belief and I think that comes from how we have performed recently, in the run that we are on. With that, we also know the challenge in hand as well.

“We know Celtic will be confident as well, so we are trying to focus on ourselves and do the things that have gone well for us.

“Anything can happen in a cup game. We know that. I know that from many years of playing in the cup.

“We are still learning. We are still early in the era of the new manager. So we will have learned a lot form the last meeting with Celtic, there were areas in the performance where we needed to be better but we can also take confidence from it as well.

“It is a cup game, winner takes all, so it is different from a league game against Celtic.

“A few of the boys have not been to Hampden before but at the end of the day it is a grass pitch with two goals at either end. Nothing really changes and that is what I try and explain to the boys.

“We have got the character in us that is needed as we have seen that from the games we have played this season. We saw it in the semi-final against Celtic last season. That character and team spirit will be important for us.

“We will be focused and ready to go and excited for it.

“Our focus as a squad is just on the game, preparing for it and look at what we are going to try and do.

“It is another chance to get to a cup final and get to where we want to be. The club are ready for it.”