Aberdeen chairman Dave Cormack will get his wish for Saturday night football a week earlier than he anticipated when the Dons travel to St Mirren tomorrow on Scottish Cup duty.
The proposed Saturday night Premiership game against Hibernian at Pittodrie next week failed to come to fruition but a place in the semi-final of the competition is at stake for the winners in Paisley tomorrow.
With a national television audience set to tune in to watch Aberdeen’s bid to reach their fifth Scottish Cup semi-final in six years McInnes is expecting another testing obstacle in his side’s push for a return to Hampden.
He said: “We play when we are asked to, television dictates it and I don’t have any problems with it. We are looking forward to the game.
“I saw St Mirren on Tuesday at Motherwell. They hung in during the first half when Motherwell were the better team but they always carried a threat. Both teams went with two strikers, the game was quite open but St Mirren kept working away and were good in the second half.
“They got their reward for hanging in there and they have a threat with Jon Obika up front.
“I see similarities with Kilmarnock in terms of playing with a focal point in a front two and they support forward quickly.
“Any team is dependent on someone scoring goals and they are well organised but carry a threat up front.”
Aberdeen fans have responded enthusiastically to the quarter-final by selling out their 1,800 allocation for Paisley and McInnes hopes the forecast rain does not delay the big game.
He said: “When you have television games there is more pressure for it to go ahead.
“We have had severe weather warnings for the last few weeks but have played through it.
“It has been tough for a lot of the teams, the wind has been whipping up and it has affected everyone.
“Hopefully its not going to be as bad as the forecast says – we haven’t heard from St Mirren so hopefully it will be fine.
“We say it every year when the cup comes around, we have been a good cup team and we want to continue that.
“We have set a standard and we want to maintain it. It is very rare you get to Hampden without beating good teams but I take a lot pride and encouragement from how driven the players were at Kilmarnock.
“The players showed how much they want it and how much it means to them down at Kilmarnock.
“That shone through in the performance and we want something similar this time around.”
