Lewis confident he can be spot on if tomorrow’s semi-final comes down to a shoot-out

Joe Lewis will be one of two of the loneliest men at Hampden tomorrow and he will relish it. The Aberdeen goalkeeper is confident that when the spotlight does fall on him he will risetothechallengeoncemore.

He has tended to excel at the national stadium. He saved a penalty from Scott Sinclair on his last visit but could not prevent his side slipping to a 1-0 defeat in November’s Betfred Cup final – although he did make an exceptional block to stop scorer Ryan Christie’s original effort.

“We’ve faced good opposition there, so your goalkeeper is always going to be called upon,” said Lewis, when asked to reflect on his Hampden heroics. “Last time we were there, I had a penalty save against Celtic. I was hopeful that would be the turning point in the game, although, unfortunately, it didn’t turn out like that.

“I’ve had some good games there and I’d hope not to be too busy. If I am called upon, I hope to do my job and we can come away with getting to go back to a final.”

It is, in some people’s eyes, the final before the final. To return to the Scottish Cup showpiece in May Aberdeen have to get past a team they have not beaten at the national stadium since the 1992-93 season. In the last three seasons alone, Celtic have beaten Aberdeen in three finals. It behoves Aberdeen to try to gain every advantage they can and the players have been practising penalties this week. What are Lewis’ penalty saving techniques?

“I usually go through a combination of where I think that player will go and try to make a picture of what type of player they are, also use a bit of instinct as well,” he said.

“It’s hard to plan for penalties too much. There’s no ipad in a bag [at the back of the goals] or anything! I have a decent record with penalties. I don’t know what it is I’m doing, but I have done okay in my career so far, so I’ll stick to whatever it is.” He might be helped in the event of a shootout by Celtic’s current problem with them; they have missed five of 12 this season, most recently when Olivier Ntcham saw his effort saved against St Mirren.

“Any team can go through that,” said Lewis, pictured. “My team Norwich missed their first six or seven this season, or scored one out of eight, maybe. Teams go through phases and there’s no link. It’s good to have a regular taker. Sam Cosgrove has been our main taker during 90 minutes and we are more than confident he will slot one away, but it’s different when it comes to a shoot-out with different players.

“Our last one was away at Hibs in the League Cup and we won that. Niall [Mcginn] might have had his saved, but everyone else scored theirs and we’d be confident if it ended up going to that.”

As for Hampden, Lewis, an Englishman, is one of the often-unloved stadium’s most steadfast defenders – the distance between the goal and stand behind is so great there’s no chance of being hit by a coconut for example. “It would need to be a helluva throw,” said Lewis, 31.

“You do feel it is different because of the distance away from the crowd,” he added. “You don’t get the abuse – or at least you don’t hear it as you are so far away! I do enjoy playing there – I also played at Murrayfield and being in front of big crowds is great.

“There’s 52,000 at Hampden and that’s special. Even if it’s not completely full you can still feel the atmosphere. Even if we don’t fill our area, the noise from our fans is great. I’ve always heard our fans over and above anyone else.”