Adam Rooney struck the winning penalty to Aberdeen’s end a 19-year wait for silverware and he would love to be the man who bring the Scottish Cup back to Pittodrie.
The Republic of Ireland international, who scored the decisive spot-kick in the 2014 League Cup final victory against Caley Thistle, netted the opening goal in Saturday’s 3-2 semi-final victory against Hibernian.
Treble-chasing Celtic stand in the way of Aberdeen’s first Scottish Cup triumph since 1990 and the Dons will hope to put up more resistance than they did when they lost 3-0 to the Hoops in the League Cup final earlier this season.
But Rooney, who is now only two goals away from hitting the 20-goal mark for the third successive season, said: “As a player you want to be in the position to win trophies.
“Everyone was disappointed with the way the League Cup final went.
“We always said we wanted to use that as a motivation to make sure we got back to Hampden.
“It is not always easy to get there but we have got there and given ourselves another chance to win a trophy.”
It took Rooney only 12 seconds to put the Dons in front at Hampden on Saturday but the attacker admitted even he was taken aback by his side’s blistering start.
He said: “Tony Docherty (the Aberdeen assistant manager) had said before the game that the Hibernian midfielder John McGinn had been caught on the ball before.
“We wanted to set the tone and just get straight after them from kick off but we didn’t expect it to go so well.
“Shinnie got absolutely wiped out by the big lad and I just gambled on a slack pass and thankfully it came off.
“It was a strange feeling.
“I thought we deserved to win the match overall.
“We absolutely battered them for the first 35 minutes.
“They brought on Grant Holt who had a sudden impact and that forced us back.
“We knew they would come at us in the second half and have a right go.
“It was always going to be a difficult game and we didn’t care how we got through.
“We just wanted to make sure we were in the final and thankfully Jonny’s goal got us there.”
Next up for the Dons is the visit of St Johnstone to Pittodrie and Rooney is eager to help the club move closer to confirming second spot.
He added: “Even if we get second place cemented early on, everyone will be fighting for a place in the starting XI for the final.
“We still have a lot to play for in the rest of the season.
“We want to finish as high up the league as we can so the more points we put on the board the better.”