ROBINSON EYES PRICELESS PIECE OF SILVERWARE

FOR Motherwell, the windfall on offer for reaching a first semi-final in six years could reach £300,000. But manager Stephen Robinson believes the potential rewards from winning the Betfred Cup outright are priceless. An admirer of Derek McInnes and the job he has done at Pittodrie, Robinson believes Aberdeen’s League Cup triumph in 2014 helped the Dons go from strength to strength. The Motherwell boss would love to use a cup success to transform his own club but Aberdeen stand in his way at the quarter-final stage tonight at Fir Park. But Robinson admits even reaching the semi-finals would be a huge boost for supporters who have been more used to relegation battles in recent years. ‘A cup success is massive,’ said Robinson (right). ‘It gives you the finance to invest in the club and in the infrastructure of the club. ‘Derek McInnes and Tony Docherty have done a brilliant job up in Aberdeen. They’ve had good cup runs and they’ve done well in the league — and that attracts players. You can attract bigger players, you can pay them more money, and then crowds go up. The feel-good factor surrounding a cup run is huge. ‘A cup run is worth a lot to Motherwell but I presume a win has not been budgeted for this season given we’ve not got anywhere in the last 20 years. ‘The fans have just had relegation to worry about in the past few seasons. It would be massive to give them a semi-final to cheer about.’ Robinson has been impressed with the calibre of signings McInnes has made to replace star performers like Jonny Hayes and Niall McGinn. But he hopes the one player the Dons could not get — Fir Park striker Louis Moult — is the man who makes the difference tonight. ‘Derek lost Jonny Hayes and Niall McGinn but he has brought in very good footballers who can hurt you,’ said Robinson. ‘There’s a lot of quality in that Aberdeen squad. I think they are stronger than last season. They have a lot of options up front and out wide and they can cause anyone problems. ‘But hopefully Louis Moult will go on to score the winner and show Aberdeen what they are missing out on and remind them why they wanted him. ‘Louis has scored a lot of goals this season and teams like Aberdeen are going to be interested in him.’