Partick Thistle midfielder Cammy Smith relishing Scottish Cup battle against former club Dundee United

Partick Thistle midfielder Cammy Smith is relishing a reunion with some of his old team-mates this afternoon but insists his sole focus is on knocking former side Dundee United out of the Scottish Cup.

The 26-year-old, who arrived at the Jags last summer following a spell in the United States, will line-up against the Tangerines at Firhill in the last 16 of the competition.

Ian McCall’s side have reached the quarter-final stage on just three previous occasions and despite their home advantage, Smith believes Thistle will still go into the tie as underdogs.

Speaking in his pre-match press conference, Smith said: “It is one of my old teams so I know a few of the boys still. I am looking forward it and it will be a good Cup tie.

“It’s one that they know will be tough for them coming here and we know it will be tough. They have got to be favourites as they are the Premiership team.

“But we are in front of our own fans and all of us at the club expect us to go as far as we can. It’s a fixture we believe we can go and progress in.

“The pressure probably will be more on them but we are looking to win. We expect that off each other.

“When the draw comes you want a home tie which we got and you want to avoid the Old Firm and we have done that. I am not saying for one minute that it will be an easy game.

“I know Dundee United and a lot of the boys there who are very good players but we have good players here too and we are confident.

“We are not turning up to the game thinking it is a free hit, we are turning up to try and win the game and progress.”

Despite their League One status at the time, Thistle ran United close at Tannadice last season as they were dumped out in agonising fashion after losing a last-minute goal to Nicky Clark in a 2-1 defeat.

Smith has been told they could well have won that fixture as he admitted there hasn’t been too many text messages exchanged with his old Tayside pals.

He admitted “I wasn’t here but by all accounts the boys said they went to Tannadice last year and put on a good show. I think they felt like they should have won the game.

“We know they are in the Premiership and we’re in the Championship but we’re confident.

“We both had midweek games so there hasn’t been too many messages exchanged between a couple of boys that I keep in touch with.

“I have spoke to one or two of them but not actually too much about the game. One of them asked about the pitch and that was really it.”

Smith doesn’t envisage the poor playing surface at Firhill to give them an advantage against their Premiership opponents after Thistle drafted in a pitch maintenance specialist earlier this week to address their turf problem.

However, he doesn’t believe the state of the pitch will destroy Thistle’s ability to get the ball down and play either.

Smith added: “The pitch isn’t the best but as a player you just have to concentrate on your touch and your pass and not take risks in certain areas.

“You need to play a certain way but we have actually played some good football on it.

“I don’t really think so (it will play into our hands), it’s the same for both teams. It’s down to the performance of the team – unless there’s an obvious error or something like that.

“That can’t be helped, but apart from that it’s about who turns up on the day, who gets the performance right and gets the goal.

“That will be more of a factor than the pitch. If you want to play free-flowing football it can still be done. It’s obviously just more difficult than on a nice pitch.

“It does help to have a bit of moisture on it – if it’s dry the ball can bobble about a bit. The pitch has been pretty wet with the weather so it will maybe help it a bit.”