The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
Frustration of Hampden defeat driving Lewis on to final revival
The Betfred Cup final loss to Celtic remains a stain on the Dons’ season and goalkeeper Joe Lewis and his team-mates are determined to make amends by reaching the Scottish Cup final.
The final day in November was one to forget as Celtic eased to a 3-0 victory.
The pain of failing to perform in the biggest game of the season is providing no shortage of motivation to make amends in the Scottish Cup, starting with today’s fourth round tie against Stranraer at Pittodrie.
Lewis said: “Getting to the final was a decent achievement, but then came probably our worst performance of the season, albeit against a good team.
“We knew to beat them we had to be at our best with everyone playing close to the best of their abilities – but that didn't happen.
“I can only speak for myself but I'm very keen to get back to Hampden and I'm sure everyone else is as well.
“There was a big build up to the final so the game against Celtic was very disappointing, both in the result and performance.
“We are keen to get back there and put things right.
“In the final against Celtic we had a plan in place, but we didn’t execute it the way we wanted.
“That affected the way the next couple of weeks went as it wasn’t a good result in our next game at Rangers (a 2-1 defeat at Ibrox on December 3).
“But with the character the players have we've managed to put that right and now we're on the back of three straight wins in the league before the break and we want to continue that.”
The Dons are overwhelming favourites to progress against Stranraer, the part-time team toiling at the foot of League 1, but Lewis knows only too well his side could be punished if it produces a poor performance.
He added: “When I was at Cardiff in 2013 we were top of the Championship but got knocked out of the FA Cup by non-league Macclesfield.
“I have seen both sides of it. I've played in games where my team has been the favourite and lost as well as being the underdog and claiming a notable scalp.
“When I was at Morecambe we beat Preston and Wolves in the Carling Cup in 2007.
“The key thing is we've got to prepare because Stranraer will be coming to Pittodrie right up for the match.
“They've just lost their manager and teams can be dangerous when that happens. They'll enjoy coming here. It will be an interesting game and we need to make sure we approach it in the right way.
“I'm sure we will. We approach every the game the same way, whether we are facing Celtic, Rangers, Stranraer or another team.”