NEW Dons signing Steven MacLean is itching to start Aberdeen's Scottish Cup clash with Raith Rovers today.

The 27-year-old, who will make his second appearance for Aberdeen against Raith Rovers, was on the bench during Rangers' 2003 final victory against Dundee.

The forward appeared as a late substitute in a third-round victory over Arbroath earlier in that successful cup run and he is determined to play a fuller part in another charge to the latter stages of the competition.

MacLean, who arrived on loan from Plymouth on Monday, said: "I have got a winner's medal, believe it or not, when I was at Rangers.

"I never played, I was on the bench in the final. I'm hopeful we can go on another run in the cup and I can play this time."

The former Scunthorpe and Sheffield Wednesday player is also optimistic that helping Aberdeen to a good cup run and top-six spot in the SPL could see him sign a permanent contract at Pittodrie.

"I wouldn't say no to that," MacLean said.

"Obviously Aberdeen are going to get a good look at me and I'm going to get a good look at them, and at the end of the season we will see what happens."

MacLean added: "I'm sure if we can get a bit of confidence, if we get a couple of wins, we can take off, cement a top-six place and hopefully get a run in the Scottish Cup."

Aberdeen's top-six hopes suffered a blow in the past seven days with home defeats by Motherwell and Falkirk but MacLean believes they can quickly put their midweek defeat behind them.

"We were all disappointed," MacLean said. "I think we have got to learn.

"We were dominating the game until Falkirk scored and then we let it get to us a bit we should have kept on playing doing the right things.

"I think we'll learn from that, we watched the video and worked out what our mistakes were and we are going out on Saturday to correct them."

Aberdeen manager Mark McGhee cancelled plans to visit his family on Brighton and the players' scheduled day off on Thursday to get over the loss, which took Falkirk off the bottom of the SPL.

"We had to get over it and the best way to do that is by being together and not taking days off," McGhee said.

"We have worked to make sure our heads are right for this game."

Source: Team Talk