Aberdeen manager Jim Goodwin has urged his players to seize the chance to start making trips to Hampden a regular occurrence.
The Dons have an opportunity to make it to the final four of the Premier Sports Cup and book a trip to the National Stadium when they take on Partick Thistle on Wednesday evening.
Goodwin’s side head into the match on the back of a morale-boosting 2-0 victory against Hearts at Pittodrie.
He said: “Clubs like Aberdeen, Hearts, Hibs and Dundee United are pretty big teams in terms of the history of the Scottish game and there is a generation of supporters of those clubs – and Celtic and Rangers too – who have been used to seeing their team go far in domestic cup competitions.
“We have to make sure that happens consistently. It is extremely difficult and challenging because there is a lot of teams in the competition but we have to find a way to win this game.
“Whether that means grinding it out or not, we have to make sure we are in the hat for the last four.
“Hopefully we can win it in some style and go and play some free-flowing football but I wouldn’t care how we get there as long as our name is in the hat. That is all that matters.”
Derek McInnes guided the Dons to glory in this competition in his first full season in charge by defeating Caley Thistle on penalties at Celtic Park in 2014.
Goodwin, who succeeded Stephen Glass at Pittodrie in February, would love to get the start of his time at the club off to a similarly successful start.
He said: “A club like Aberdeen with the resources available, with the history, the depth of the supporters and everything else which goes with it, we should be aiming for semi-finals as the minimum.
“When you get to that stage of the competition then anything can happen.
“I’ve always done relatively well during my short period as a manager in terms of going far in these competitions.
“I took St Mirren into the semi-final of this competition and the Scottish Cup and I want to do the same with Aberdeen.
“I want to take Aberdeen, the supporters, the club and this new group of players, where a lot of them haven’t experienced anything like that, I want to give them that experience as well.
“We are all desperate to get to Hampden and to get into that semi-final and to hopefully put ourselves into a situation where we can go and win some silverware because it’s been too long since that last happened here.”
The Dons will be firm favourites to progress against a Partick Thistle side who are sitting top of the Championship but Goodwin says there will be no chance of anyone at the Dons underestimating the task at hand.
And while the Jags may be playing in the second tier this season, Goodwin feels they possess a manager who should be plying his trade in the top flight of Scottish football.
The Partick boss Ian McCall described Goodwin as “a bright, young dude” in his pre-match press conference and his Aberdeen counterpart was also full of praise for his opposite number.
When asked to describe McCall, Goodwin replied: “A bright, old dude.
“Ian is a top manager, I’m not into blowing smoke up the opposition manager too much but Ian’s a really good guy and a Premiership manager.
“He’s been a little bit unfortunate in terms of circumstances but as a manager he tests you and makes you have to think on the sidelines.
“He’s right up there and I loved his approach when he was at Ayr United and I was managing Alloa. Very offensive, attack-minded and on the front-foot.
“He always has a team full of technically good footballers regardless of what level he’s playing at and you see that in this Partick team.
“They score lots of goals and he deserves all of the plaudits which come his way but I hope he’s disappointed after this game.”
And Goodwin believes the lack of expectation on Partick will make them even more dangerous opponents.
He said: “I have been there myself when I was manager of Alloa.
“You go to some big teams and there is absolutely no pressure whatsoever.
“It is almost a free hit but I know Ian McCall well enough because I have managed against him on numerus occasions and he always set his teams up to be offensive minded.
“He gave us a bit of a scare when I was manager of St Mirren in this competition.
“I would expect more of the same.
“They are a good footballing team who try and build from the back and they have some good technical players in their team as well.
“They have a lot of ex-Premiership players and I have tried to explain that to some of the players in our squad – it is a team who are used to playing in big games.
“We certainly won’t be underestimating them but if we can reach the levels I know we are capable of then I think we will give ourselves a good chance of progressing.”
The Dons boss, meanwhile, said the tie will likely “come too soon” for Jonny Hayes and Hayden Coulson who missed the weekend win against Hearts through injury.
He added: “We have one or two tired legs from the weekend.
“We had a number of players who came into the weekend starting XI who hadn’t featured a great deal in weeks gone by so we need to be careful with the selection but whatever starting XI I go with it will be what I think is the best team to get the job done.”
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