Having tasted success before Michael Philipson is eager for Banks o’ Dee to earn another shot at Morrison Motors (Turriff) Aberdeenshire Shield glory.
The Aberdeen side face Huntly at Christie Park tonight in the semi-final of the competition.
Dee lifted the Shield for the first time in season 2021-22 after defeating the Black and Golds on penalties in the final.
Midfielder Philipson is keen to get back to the final and the 25-year-old said: “It’s a huge game for us.
“It’s a trophy we’ve enjoyed over the last few years.
“We’d like to try to win more silverware but it’s obviously one game at a time.
“It took us a while to get to the stage of competing for these trophies and then winning them.
“Now that we’re in that position we’d like to add more, but Huntly are in really good form.
“It will be a really good tie I think, they were very hard to play against last season and I’m sure they’ll be the same this time.”
Meanwhile, Huntly’s Ross Still is also determined to reach the Shield showpiece.
To do so, the midfielder – who has been deputising in defence in recent weeks – believes the Strathbogie side need to sharpen up in the final third.
Huntly are the Breedon Highland League’s top scorers this term.
But at the weekend they drew a blank against Formartine United and a week earlier missed opportunities also cost them in the Scottish Cup loss to Forfar Athletic.
Still, 28, added: “Against Formartine we created three or four good opportunities early on and it didn’t happen.
“We also created some good chances against Forfar, but we’re the top scorers in the league this season which shows what we’re capable of.
“It’s just been the last couple of games we haven’t quite been doing it.
“But hopefully we can get back among the goals, with it being a semi-final it would be a good time to do it.”
Strathbogie side out to end silverware wait
It’s been 16 years since Huntly won a trophy, when they claimed the SFA North Region Challenge Cup in October 2007.
Still, who is in his second spell at Christie Park, would love to move a step closer to ending that wait.
He said: “It would be great to get the club into a final and try to win a trophy, it’s been a long time for Huntly.
“We want to try to make the most of this opportunity, Banks o’ Dee are a really strong side.
“But so far this season we’ve competed and played well against the bigger teams and hopefully we can do so again.”
Philipson is confident Dee can cause problems this evening and takes heart from Friday’s 2-0 league victory against Fraserburgh.
He added: “We know the quality we have within our squad so it’s just about giving ourselves opportunities and if we do we feel we’ll score goals.
“Against Fraserburgh we managed to take the game to them in the first half.
“Then second half we played in the right areas and managed to see it out.”
