THE Scottish Cup is an “important competition” for Athletic and they will pick a strong side to try to reach round four.

That’s the message from manager James McPake as he prepares to welcome League Two Forfar Athletic to KDM Group East End Park on Saturday.

In each of the past four seasons, Dunfermline have been knocked out of the tournament at the first hurdle, but have won all four of their previous ties with the Loons, who are bottom of their division but under the charge of a new manager in Ray McKinnon.

When asked if the game was an opportunity to potentially freshen up his side, McPake, a finalist as a player, replied: “It’s not a case of freshening up; it’s a massive game for us.

“The Scottish Cup is an important competition. I’ve lost two finals as a player, Dave (Mackay, his assistant manager) has won it as a first-ever St Johnstone captain, and we’ve got a great history at Dunfermline Athletic of winning the cup as well.

“It’s an important competition for us so we’ll pick as strong a team as we believe, for this game, that can go out and get a positive result against Forfar, which is going to be a tough game. It’s certainly not a game that we’re thinking, ‘Let’s make four, five, six, seven changes, and rest people’. Not at all.

“Let’s get the eleven on the pitch that we feel is most suited to this game like we do every week.

“This week, the league is not even in our thoughts. I’ll be completely honest with that now and, as you know me now, I’m honest and open in what I say, and this is our biggest game of the season so far. It’s our next game.

“As a player, I just think back to my playing career – I don’t like talking about that too much, because the focus is on the group of players we’ve got – but this cup carries a lot of weight in terms of our football club, in terms of Dave, who’s won it, and, as I say, on a personal note for me, it carries a lot of weight as well because I’ve had some great days in the cup and I’ve had some very disappointing days.

“We want our players to experience that as well but we just need to focus on Forfar. That’s the most important game just now because we’re out the cup if we don’t win this game on Saturday, or if we don’t put the performance up to give ourselves the best chance of winning the game.”