| Saturday saw every player who started the quarter-final replay win over Hamilton on Thursday left out of the starting line-up to face Airdrie, but that will not be happening again.
The combination of a 7-0 thrashing the stand-ins suffered at New Broomfield, and the need to make sure his players are ready for Hampden, means the strongest available side will be fielded against St Johnstone at Dens this Staurday and for the trip to Ross County a week later.
“I’ve got to keep players sharp, so I cannot really afford to leave people out of the next two games if they are fit and available,” said boss Alan Kernaghan.
“Barry Smith took a kick on Saturday, so we will have to check on him, but it will be the strongest available team for St Johnstone on Saturday and again at Ross County.”
While there were mitigating circumstances for defeat at the weekend, the size of the loss was still hurting the manager today.
“It was difficult because we had to make so many changes from our normal line-up, but we still should have done much better than we did,” added Alan.
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