THE Ayr United manager Ian McCall believes next weekend’s Championship trip to Morton is more important than tomorrow’s Betfred Cup quarter-final at Rangers.
McCall’s side climbed to the top of the table on Saturday following a 2-0 win at Alloa, a result which further underlined their great start to life back in the second tier.
Despite being well aware of the financial benefits that would come from a Hampden semi-final should they pull off a win over the Ibrox club, McCall is adamant that league duty remains his side’s priority this season.
McCall also insists he has no plans to rein in his side’s attacking instincts against Steven Gerrard’s side after watching Lawrence Shankland take his tally for the season to 15 with a brace against Alloa.
McCall said: “I think Morton is a bigger game but we’ll go with two strikers and we’ll try to play like we play. We might try and stiffen it up in the middle a wee bit but we won’t change much.
“We may have to change it a little bit for next Saturday because Wednesday will probably be a shift and there will be a lot of running involved but we’ve deal with that when it comes.
“Shankland’s play was terrific against Alloa and it was great to get Craig Moore on, it was great to get Ross Docherty on and Declan McDaid is really beating the door down now to play so we have got a lot of options now and hopefully everybody can stay fit.”
Meanwhile, Chris Higgins’ hopes of being involved at Ibrox have been dashed after an ankle problem resurfaced.
The 33-year-old, who was part of a Queen of the South side that won a Challenge Cup last-eight tie 4-3 on penalties in September 2012, had been involved in McCall’s first-team squad recently after eight months out with the injury.
However he has suffered a set-back and will not be involved when the Honest Men take on the Light Blues in the Betfred Cup tomorrow night with McCall saying: “Chris has played in our reserves and been in our squad recently however he is sitting training out this week.”
“He will therefore not been involved at all against Rangers which is disappointing as his experience would have been useful.”
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