Cup glory must be priority for Aberdeen boss Derek McInnes

For Alex McLeish, the steps at Hampden which led to lifting the Scottish Cup were once almost as familiar to him as his own garden path.

Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes holds the League Cup aloft in 2014 - the high point of his tenure so far. Picture: SNS

Between 1982 and 1990, he played in five finals for Aberdeen and emerged with a winners’ medal on every occasion. Scottish football’s oldest and most famous piece of silverware was almost part of the furniture at Pittodrie.

McLeish can scarcely credit that almost three decades have now passed since Aberdeen last claimed the trophy, that 1990 penalty shootout triumph over Celtic which completed his own nap hand of Scottish Cup victories.

It is why McLeish has no doubt that Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes would happily trade second place in the Premiership this season for the more tangible reward of success at Hampden on 27 May.

“I can’t believe it’s 27 years since Aberdeen won the Scottish Cup,” said McLeish. “It’s too long. I think Derek would take winning the cup ahead of being runners-up in the league. We are all greedy as managers, we want everything. But if you were saying, ‘Scottish Cup or second place’, he would take the silverware.”

Winning the League Cup three seasons ago, to give Aberdeen their first major trophy for 19 years, has been the high point so far of McInnes’ tenure. His own self-confessed desire to leave a legacy of more regular success at the club has increased the onus on him to prove that wasn’t simply a one-off.

“Derek has done a good job at Aberdeen, given the budget hasn’t been huge,” added McLeish. “He has had quite a solid team. In terms of selection it’s been pretty consistent. It’s been the same players year in and year out.

“At some stage that will come to a stop and then whether Derek stays and builds again remains to be seen. But I think he would probably be itching for another stab at the silverware. He would look back with great pride over the period he has been there if he won a couple of trophies.

“When I played for Aberdeen, we took it for granted. We won three Scottish Cups in a row from ‘82 to ‘84, then won it again in ‘86 and for the last time in that penalty shootout in 1990. We went through our career thinking, ‘It’s going to be the same every year.’ That’s why you get all the advice from the old pros to savour it when you win it. Sometimes it dries up and you see what they mean after a period of time. It was a great spell for us and Dundee United back then, a time when teams outwith the Old Firm finally believed they could come down to Glasgow and win.”

Aberdeen flopped badly in that scenario when they reached the League Cup final earlier this season, slipping tamely to a 3-0 defeat against Celtic at Hampden. Ahead of Saturday’s Scottish Cup semi-final against Hibs at the national stadium, McLeish insists McInnes’ players must display a far more purposeful mentality.

“They need to show they have learned from that game against Celtic,” he said. “It was a game where Scott Brown was going into tackles and coming away with the ball every time and those are the situations in big games where the Aberdeen players have to show they are not going to be bullied. They have to be able to dominate because that’s the only way individuals get themselves recognised in the clamour for the Scotland squad as well.

“Aberdeen have had a very consistent season and this is the kind of showcase where the guys who are being touted for the Scotland squad need to excel, to show they can play under pressure at the higher levels.”

McLeish, who managed Hibs to their previous second tier title back in 1999 and then to the Scottish Cup final two years later, believes the Easter Road club can cash in on the feelgood factor of clinching the Championship title last weekend and pose a significant threat to Aberdeen’s ambitions.

“It is a hard game for Aberdeen on Saturday, a dangerous game,” he said. “Hibs will be on a high. Neil Lennon has great experience of these kind of games from his time at Celtic and I don’t think it’s a foregone conclusion for the Dons.

“We had tremendous momentum with that Hibs team when we won the second tier title in 1999. Winning becomes a habit. When teams are relegated, they aren’t used to winning and find it hard to adapt to the division they’ve dropped into because of that.

“But Hibs overcame that early in the season and eventually romped to the title this year. I see them as a really dangerous opponent for Aberdeen.

“Hibs had over 100 years of hurt but they now have great memories of winning the cup last season. They have great momentum going into the semi-final.”

l Alex McLeish was speaking at a William Hill media event. 
William Hill is the proud sponsor of the Scottish Cup.