The Scottish Cup represents the last chance for Aberdeen to finish the season with some silverware but manager Derek McInnes doesn’t believe there is any additional pressure on his side ahead of today’s meeting with Ross County.
A trip to Victoria Park, a venue where the Dons suffered a 2-1 defeat in December, would not have been high on McInnes’ preferences when the fifth round draw was made last month.
But with Celtic already firmly out of sight in the Scottish Premiership, the Dons know the Scottish Cup is the final chance to win a trophy this season.
The Aberdeen manager said: “It doesn’t increase any pressure, if it does it’s certainly not on ourselves.
“We’ve put ourselves in a category of a number of clubs who at the start of the season would have put themselves up there to try to win a cup.
“We’re not any different.
“Obviously Celtic are going to win the league and do it with a bit to spare but we still feel we’ve got plenty to achieve, both in the cup and in the league.
“We’ve got our hands full to try to finish second.
“We’ve got 15 games left to show that we’re good enough to do that.
“Unlike the league when you can have a poor afternoon and recover, the cup is just all about getting through.
“Ideally we’d like a strong performance but if the performance is poor and we get through that is all that matters.
“You’re either in the cup or out it and we’ve got to make sure we’re in it.”
McInnes guided the Dons to a first trophy in 19 years with League Cup success in 2014 but the Aberdeen manager is determined to enjoy more glory days with the club.
His hopes of doing that were boosted this week with attacking midfielder Jonny Hayes agreeing a new deal until the summer of 2019.
That matches the length of McInnes’ contract at Pittodrie and the manager feels he still has plenty left to achieve by that time.
He added: “I’m really happy here and I think we’ve still got work to do.
“I’ve said that to all the players as well that if you were to leave and if this was your last day, we’ve still not done all we’ve set out to do.
“We’ve still got work to do. I’m the same as that.
“I think we’ve tried to create an environment here. We’ve got a good bunch of lads, we work hard and we all know what we’re trying to do.
“There’s different lads at different stages of their career and we’ve tried to create an environment for them all to be successfully individually and as a team.
“That in itself is good but we still need good players and our good players to perform for things to get even better. Keeping Jonny helps us be successful and gives us a better chance to be successful. It’s important to that have stability and consistency.”