Derek McInnes boosted by support as Aberdeen prepare for Celtic final
Derek McInnes is inspired by having the city of Aberdeen behind his side as they prepare for the Betfred Cup final against Celtic on Sunday.
Over 20,000 of the Red Army will travel to Hampden Park looking to see their side lift silverware for the second time in three seasons, with many more behind in the Granite City following the game on radio and television.
The Dons are sitting behind Celtic at the top of the Ladbrokes Premiership but the Pittodrie boss is hoping to reward the fans and the city by bringing the cup north again.
That's the beauty of a cup run,'' said McInnes, who took over as manager in 2013.
I said this at the end of last season and the beginning of this season, as good as we were in the league last year, you don't get the same bounce in momentum if you don't do well in the cups.
We have been involved in a few semi-finals since we came in.
This is now our second cup final so there is a feel good factor, a momentum the energy a cup run can create is important for a lot of clubs but especially for us.''
McInnes, 45, believes a cup win would cement his successful tenure at the club
He said: It's been a good period of us but to define an era, a successful era of the club you would normally put that synonymous with trophies.
We have put up title fights, been involved with European football again, we have one trophy and in another cup final, we are debt free and there is good energy around the club at the moment.
The board has work extremely hard to make us debt free, ambition to build is a new stadium and on the pitch we have a team of value and a team that is full of ambition for us to win.
So I think our momentum has been clear from that.
But when people look back in 25/30 years time from now the successful era will be determined through trophies and we will try and win more to demonstrate the period really.''