Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes has warned his players to forget all about this Sunday’s meeting with Rangers – and keep their focus firmly on making it to the last four of the Betfred Cup.
September 25 – the day Mark Warburton’s Rangers will visit Pittodrie for the first time this season – has been long etched in the diaries of the Aberdeen support.
But the Dons must first deal with tomorrow’s Betfred Cup quarter-final with St Johnstone before they can start preparing for this weekend’s contest against their arch rivals.
And for manager McInnes, there is no chance his side will be caught with one eye on the upcoming tussle with Rangers as his players are out to right a wrong from last season.
The Dons enjoyed a successful Scottish Premiership campaign last term, pushing Celtic for the majority of the year, before their challenge eventually faded over the closing stretch.
However the cup competitions were a source of immense disappointment for McInnes’ men.
They fell at the first hurdle on both occasions – with a defeat by Hibernian in the League Cup followed by an early exit from the Scottish Cup at the home of Edinburgh rivals Hearts.
But, after overcoming a potentially tricky tie at Ayr United in the previous round, a home win against St Johnstone tomorrow night would give the Dons a semi-final to look forward to next month.
McInnes says there is far too much at stake against the Perth Saints to allow them to get caught up in the hype surrounding their upcoming match with Rangers.
He said: “This is the most important game because it’s the next one.
“We said at the start of the week that this was a big week for us.
“We wanted to be six points better off and into a semi-final. Nothing has changed.
“We got the first part of it done by winning it on Sunday against Dundee, that hopefully helps us going into this one.
“But the full concentration is on this one, as you would expect.
“Our opponents deserve that, our supporters deserve that – and the players are reminded that they’ve got a job to do, to get us into a semi-final.
“There will be no distractions from our end.”
Just over two and a half years ago, Aberdeen ended a 19-year wait for silverware with a tense penalty shoot-out victory over Caley Thistle at Parkhead.
The match wasn’t a classic but it was an important stepping stone in restoring the Pittodrie club’s reputation after too many years spent mixing it with the also-rans in the bottom six of Scotland’s top flight.
But McInnes says the Dons are eager to add more silverware to the trophy cabinet and prove they are not one cup wonders.
He said: “When you come to the club and work for Aberdeen, part of the remit is to get to cup finals – to get yourself in the mix for silverware.
“In my first couple of seasons, we got to three semi-finals and obviously won the League Cup.
“Last season’s cup experience was disappointing.
“We lost at Hearts and we lost at Hibs, so we never even got one cup run going at all last year.
“And sometimes the perception of a successful campaign can be determined by your cup runs.
“There was so much to like about our league form, certainly last year, but the cup gives us the best chance of silverware.
“I think it’s something that’s really important to the players, and certainly to supporters of the club.
“We should be going all the way in cup competitions. We’re in the last eight, we want to get into that semi-final draw.
“We feel we’ve got as good a chance as any team to go all the way.
“A lot of teams in the competition will feel that this could be their time – and we’re no different.”
