Micky Mellon is confident Peter Pawlett will knock back St Johnstone to remain at Dundee United.
The midfielder has been offered a pre-contract by the Saints and is also considering an extension at United.
Pawlett showed his worth as he scored the only goal of the game at Forfar to put the Tannadice outfit into the Scottish Cup quarter finals, where they will play either Aberdeen or Livingston.
Mellon stated: “Yeah (I’m confident he’ll stay). I’ve got a great relationship with all my players and Peter. It’s probably out of my remit a little bit, talking about that kind of thing. But certainly he’s a player we enjoy working with and I think Peter enjoys being here as well. I believe that will continue.”
It was a tough 90 minutes but Mellon knows it was all about getting over the line.
He stated: “We came to do a professional job and make sure we got through to the next round.
"Of course I could stand here and say we could do this better and that better but I think the important thing was to make sure we got the results and we’re into the quarter-finals of the Scottish Cup, which sounds good.”
Mellon isn’t bothered who United face in the next round.
He added: “It’s incredible, for us, it is what Dundee United should be all about, contesting in the latter stages of cup competitions. We want to build back towards that. Being able to do that is good.
“I’m not fussed who we get. It’s all to play for. It’s a massive quarter-final between two Premiership teams and one we’ll look forward to. It’s just a pity it won’t have a crowd.”
The United boss also revealed that keeper Benjamin Siegrist pulled out in the warm-up with a hand injury.
Mellon confirmed: “I don’t know. He’ll probably have to go for a scan. He just injured his hand in the warm up and enough not to play. He’s in a lot of pain to be fair. We’ll see what happens with that in the next 24 hours.”
Interim Forfar boss Gary Irvine knows his team can take heart in their relegation fight.
He said: "We did well against a good team and now we need to take that performance into the league.
"If we play like that we will give ourselves a real chance."
