Graeme Shinnie believes victory over Rangers in Sunday’s Betfred Cup semi-final could be just the spark Aberdeen need to fire up their stuttering season.
The Dons have finished as runners-up to Celtic for four seasons in a row but have struggled to match the blistering pace set by surprise leaders Hearts this term.
They currently languish in seventh place, 13 points behind the high-flying Jambos in top spot.
Skipper Shinnie knows that is not good enough for a club with big ambitions but the Scotland midfielder believes one big result this weekend could inspire the change in fortunes his side are striving for.
He said: “We know that our game has to be very good from the start on Sunday and continue that the whole way through the game.
“It would be massive for us, as cup finals are somewhere we always want to be. We’ve always done well getting into these sorts of positions, but we want to go one step further, but we can only do that if we get ourselves into the final and give ourselves that opportunity. It’s a massive game for us.
”We’d love it to give us that bit of momentum and I think last Saturday – losing to Hearts – summed up our season so far.
“It was such a bad performance in the first half, but we turned it around in the second half and were a lot better. You can’t be that way because we gave ourselves a mountain to climb.
“It’s been frustrating, but we’ve got the chance to get to a final and give ourselves a real chance to build some momentum for the season.”
Shinnie led Inverness to Scottish Cup glory in 2015 and he would love to land a second winners’ medal as Aberdeen captain.
He said: “It’ll take a massive team effort. We know Rangers are a good team and it’ll be important for us to try and keep it as tight at the back and hopefully a clean sheet to let us build on that.
“We’ll let the front players do their stuff and try to get goals. I think in football it’s all about the team performance and everyone playing at the top of their game.
“We need a massive team performance and we know we’ve got it in us. We’ve got a full squad back now and have had a lot of injuries to deal with, but we’ve got a full squad for the gaffer to pick from.
“It’ll take a collective effort from everyone to try and get the job done, but it’s a job we know we can do.
“It’s always games like this that you want to do well in. You always have a chance to go and be a hero in a cup game. James Vincent did it when I was at Inverness and you get all the attention that comes with it, so it’s always a good stage to go and show yourself.”
