Other clubs don’t get the same stick and they don’t even get to the finals

A year on from his rejection of Rangers, Derek McInnes is bullish in his insistence Aberdeen remain the main Scottish club taking the fight to Celtic.

Since Brendan Rodgers took charge at Celtic Park in the summer of 2016, the Hoops have swept the board domestically.

If they beat the Dons at Hampden this afternoon to lift the Betfred Cup, it will be seven trophies on the trot and the first in the bag in the hunt for a third successive Treble.

Yet if McInnes could privately be forgiven for looking forward to the day his colleague moves on to a fresh challenge, publicly he does a good job of talking up his team as thriving in Celtic’s shadows.

“Eras are eras. You are put up against who you’re put up against,” he said.

“I’m proud that Aberdeen – more than any team outwith Celtic in the last five years – has been in Europe every year, and made seven semifinals and four finals.

“Nobody else can touch that, and I’m proud of that fact.

“A couple of years ago, we were expected to get pushed aside when everybody was back in.

“Often enough, people said to me, ‘Once Hearts, Hibs and Rangers are back in, Aberdeen will be back where they used to be’.

“They thought finishing second and winning a cup didn’t really count because Rangers weren’t really at it, and Hibs and Hearts were struggling away.

“But we are still there, still getting to cup finals, still qualifying for Europe and we still finished second last year and those clubs have been back up for a couple of seasons now.

“We will be criticised if we lose on Sunday. We get criticised if we lose finals.

“We accept that criticism, but at least we are getting criticised for getting to finals.

“Other clubs don’t get the same stick and they don’t even get to the finals.

“We’re still searching for the perfect performances, and getting to know a lot about our squad. We have fielded the youngest team in the Premiership this year.

“It’s good that we can still find a way to be that competitive team, even though we haven’t been at our best this season.

“So the era is what it is, and I’m pleased and proud that we’ve negotiated our way to another final.”

While there is a clear-headed logic behind the assessment of how the land lies from the Aberdeen manager, he acknowledges not everyone who follows the game and, more specifically, his team, will be so pragmatic.

“When we won the League Cup, it was the club’s first trophy for almost 20 years,” said McInnes.

“The anticipation of that, and the desire and desperation from our support, for us to finally win a trophy again was clear.

“Now we’re four-and-a-half years on from that, and I still feel that desperation and demand to win. “But that’s what happens when you manage a club like Aberdeen. The demand is there. You need to accept that responsibility.

“You are never going to please everyone all the time. I get the clamour for trophies, I would be the same myself. “I’m actually really enjoying the challenge, and regardless of who is manager of Rangers, Celtic, whoever – and regardless of what teams you play – I’d like to think we will be able look back in the future and say we did a lot of good work at Aberdeen.

“Hopefully, there will be more trophies to show for it.”

Not just for himself but also, the Dons boss says, for his players and, in particular, Graeme Shinnie.

“I think it’s important for Graeme to lift a trophy, because there are those images of Willie Miller (above), Russell Anderson and Stewart McKimmie – but especially Willie, as he did it most often.

“Graeme did it with Inverness, obviously, but he’s a captain in the true sense of the word and it’s important for me that he has that image of lifting a trophy.

“It’s important for me to have other players with those winners’ medals and those important memories.

“If I could give them that winner’s medal, I would, because they deserve it – but they’ve got to go and earn it.”