Special delivery
McInnes would give up summer holiday to land Scottish Cup
DEREK McINNES remembers taking an extra job as a postman during long close seasons — but he now wants to deliver the Scottish Cup to Aberdeen and rubber-stamp the shortest summer break of his players’ careers.
With the Dons playing in the Europa League qualifiers for three successive years, they have had to get used to very little downtime between one season ending and another beginning.
That will be compressed even further if they lift the trophy for the first time in 27 years.
The Hampden showpiece is on May 27 and, with Scotland’s UEFA co-efficient having dropped even further, the winners have to enter qualifying for the 2017-18 Europa League at the first round, which gets under way on June 29.
It’s a problem McInnes would be delighted to face, but it would mean his team are playing competitive matches all year round, placing much tougher demands on the players than in the past.
‘My first few seasons at Morton, (the close season) was two-and-ahalf months,’ said the Aberdeen boss. ‘I went and got a job in the Post Office to get some extra money.
‘You were looking for extra work in the summer and I was doing two months in the Post Office in Paisley, giving out giros just because you’re looking for something to do. Now you’ve no time to do anything.
‘When the fixtures come out, you always look for when the Scottish Cup final date is. Up until last year, if you won the Scottish Cup, you sometimes got an extra week or two off — but that’s no longer the case.
‘We played a home game every single month last year. There wasn’t a month where we didn’t play at Pittodrie. For us, it was a 12-month season.
‘We’ve not really had a proper pre-season for the players in the last two or three years. Preparation in the close season is totally different to how it was in the past.
‘It’s about 15 or 16 days average. A couple of years ago, they got 19 days and it was bang on two weeks last year.
‘But we definitely want to get to the Scottish Cup final and we want to be in Europe, so it will make it interesting to see exactly how it goes.’
Ross County are the next hurdle to clear in the quest to win the famous old trophy for the first time since a penalty shootout victory against Celtic in the 1990 final in what is shaping up to be a key month for McInnes.
They have already returned to second place in the league on goal difference and can move three points clear of Rangers by winning their game in hand at home to Motherwell on Wednesday night.
They also have what look like winnable matches at Kilmarnock and Hamilton, as well as a visit from the Staggies before the end of February, and earlier this week Jonny Hayes joined Graeme Shinnie and Adam Rooney in signing a new contract.
The Irishman claims loyalty to McInnes and the job he’s doing at Pittodrie was a major motivation for agreeing the deal — and the manager is happy for that to be a two-way street.
McInnes added: ‘I’m really happy here and I think we’ve still got work to do. I’ve said that to all the players, as well, that if you were to leave and this was your last day, we still haven’t done all we’ve set out to do. We’ve still got work to do.
‘It is a really good, solid core of players, a team of value, a team of committed players, a club of no debt, a club that is ambitious to try to move things on and off the park. It’s important that we all work for ambitious people.
‘We’ve put ourselves in a category of a number of clubs who, at the start of the season, would have put themselves up there to try to win a cup. We’re no different.
‘Obviously, Celtic are going to win the league and do it with a bit to spare, but we still feel we’ve got plenty to achieve. Both in the cup and in the league.
‘We’ve got our hands full to try to finish second. We’ve got to show that we’re good enough to do that. Unlike the league, where you can have a poor afternoon and recover, the cup is just all about getting through.’
Aberdeen have won six of their last seven games since losing at Dingwall in the league in December and the manager’s only worry is whether or not to start Jayden Stockley and on-loan Celtic midfielder Ryan Christie after their match-winning cameos as substitutes last weekend.
County boss Jim McIntyre, meanwhile, is hoping that the pain of a lame League Cup trophy defence can provide added fire and motivation for his players to overcome today’s visitors.
The Dingwall men suffered the ignominy of crashing out of the new group stage of the Betfred Cup back in July, suffering defeat at Alloa and a penalty shootout loss at home to Raith along the way.
McIntyre feels that lapse will fortify the determination of his men to beat the Dons to a place in the last eight, although he insists he doesn’t feel the need to mention it in his team talk.
‘I don’t think I need to use it as an incentive,’ said McIntyre. ‘The players know the League Cup campaign was really poor from us and the only way to make up for that is to do well in the next cup competition.
‘We’ve got one of the hardest draws in the round and it’s up to us to make sure we’re the name in the hat for the next round.
‘Aberdeen coming to town will bring a good crowd and the atmosphere will be excellent. They’re a good side, but if we can mirror the performances we’ve had against them in the last year at home, then we have a great chance.’
County’s training schedule has been affected by the plummeting temperatures this week, with the team using the Highland Football Academy’s indoor facilities at times.
McIntyre has a strong squad to choose from, although Chris Burke remains out, while fellow midfielder Chris Routis is rated ‘50-50’ with a hamstring problem. Jason Naismith, signed from St Mirren in January, is cup-tied.
I handed out giros in the Post Office in Paisley to earn extra money