After picking up his second SPFL Championship manager of the month award in a row Peter Houston has set his sights on even bigger rewards in both league and cup in the closing stages of the season.

The Falkirk manager picked up the prize for maintaining a run that has now seen his team lose just one match in the last 13 including, in January, ending Hearts' bid to complete their Championship campaign unbeaten, while they have since earned a place in the Scottish Cup quarter-finals.

The 56-year-old former Dundee United manager admits it took him time to adjust to the requirements of the Championship when he arrived at the club in the summer knowing little about his own squad let alone how opponents would play.

However they are now just a point behind Queen of the South in the battle for one of the Premiership play-off places and Houston believes both clubs should be setting their sights on those above them.

"I think before the start of the season most people in Scotland would have thought that they would be one, two, three in the Championship, although maybe not in the order it is just now," he said of the anticipated title race between Hearts, Hibs and Rangers.

"In many ways it is that so far, but there's still a number of games to go and both ourselves and Queens are trying to push, not only for the fourth place but above us as well.

"I don't think it would be wrong for us to do that because there's a lot of tough games between each other still to go."

That said, with five gaps currently separating his team from third placed Hibs, their first priority must be to overhaul fourth placed Queen of the South, while the intensity of their rivalry with the Dumfries club has been accentuated by drawing them in the Scottish Cup quarter-finals.

Both teams have reached the final of that competition in recent years and Houston noted that with only three Premiership teams among the last eight a big opportunity has opened up.

""The Scottish Cup is fantastic. Falkirk have a good recent record, reaching quarter finals, semi-finals and even finals. They're not long in reminding you at the club - no pressure!

"Everyone wants to go to Hampden, on a decent pitch, and play in a semi-final and final and I'll be telling the players there's an opportunity. It's one of the ties of the round in my opinion.

"Queen of the South had the better of us down there and we've had two good games at our place. It's a fantastic opportunity for us to try and get onto that pitch for a semi-final where anything can happen. "