Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes has called on his players to use their Scottish Cup run as a catalyst in their bid to finish best of the rest in the Scottish Premiership.
The Dons boss believes reaching the Scottish Cup final last season drove his side on to pip Rangers to second place behind champions Celtic and after watching side beat Kilmarnock on penalties on Tuesday to set-up a Scottish Cup semi-final meeting with Motherwell on April 14 McInnes hopes history can repeat itself this term.
Aberdeen are five points behind the Gers but have played a game less than the Ibrox side but the Dons boss insists his side are genuine contenders for second place.
He said: “We feel we are a team that is capable of finishing second again.
“So we will fight tooth and nail to try to make sure that we do that again this season by using the impetus of the cup run to drive us on.
“Having the semi final then the final to look forward to helped to focus our league form last season and hopefully something similar will happen this time.
“If we show the form that we are capable of and the talented individual players in the squad reach their levels then I’m confident we have enough team ethic and motivation to try to finish second.”
McInnes knows his team is the underdog in the race for second place but having upset the odds and beaten a team with bigger resources to second spot a year ago he is confident his side can do it again.
He said: “It’s no mean feat for us to be second or third in the Pemiership as we have got to work hard to get there and hopefully we can meet that objective again.
“Celtic and Rangers are huge favourites to finish in first and second place in the table and I do think given the differences in finances they should be occupied by them.
“But we are proud of the fact that we have finished second in the last few years even though ideally we would like to finish first.
“To be honest I think it would be a huge achievement if we were to do that against this season.”
The Dons return to league action today when they host a Dundee side smarting from a 4-0 home defeat to St Johnstone a week ago.
McInnes knows Neil McCann’s side will be eager to bounce back but following two defeats and a draw in the last three league matches he hopes his side can get back to winning ways in the league.
He said: “It’s too important for Dundee to be in a slump for too long and I’m sure Neil’s been doing his work this week to get the desired response.
“They have good players and we are aware of their threat so we have to make sure it’s our good players that make their mark on the game.”
