Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes has challenged his players to earn their chance to play in front of a capacity Hampden crowd by defeating Morton in tomorrow’s Betfred Cup semi-final.
Supporters have been made to suffer by the 12.15pm kick-off time, with the national stadium set to be less than half full.
The Dons have sold less than 11,000 tickets and Morton are not expected to sell more than 5,000 which had prompted calls for the match to be moved to Easter Road or Tynecastle.
The Dons are heavy favourites to defeat the Championship club and book a final place against either Celtic or Rangers and McInnes wants his players to use the prospect of returning to Glasgow to play in front of a full house as an incentive.
McInnes said: “We could play the game in the car park, anywhere, it doesn’t matter where the game is. For the convenience of the supporters, it could have been maximised better and had more atmosphere at a full house somewhere. The attendance will reinforce what I’m saying.
“Once the decision was made then we accept it. I’m not complaining. It’s always special playing at Hampden and we just want to make sure that we’re good enough to get back there on the day when it is a full house and we get to sample more than 50,000 supporters at Hampden.
“We’ve tried to treat this as a normal game and we’ll play the game, not the occasion, and try to make sure we’re good enough.”
McInnes is confident his players will not treat the opposition lightly, and added: “The pitch is big and that suits as well because we’ve got a lot of pace in the team. We’ve got a lot of players who will enjoy playing there and hopefully we’re good enough to win.
“My players have never been guilty of complacency. There’s a thin line between being complacent and over-confident. A lot of my players played in those League Cup semi-finals, one we won and one we lost to Dundee United last year, and we certainly prefer the winning feeling.”
