Bellslea Park, July 9. A midweek trek to Aberdeenshire is as far removed from Hampden as Kilmarnock can get, but Derek McInnes asks them to close their eyes and think of the national stadium.
A challenge, perhaps, in the cramped confines of the away dressing room at Fraserburgh, but a first step in fostering the belief his players will so desperately require this evening. For where else can they realistically match Celtic? The Viaplay Cup holders, and Premiership champions, have the momentum, the best players in the country, and resources their semi-final opponents can only dream of.
But from all his battles with Celtic down the years, primarily as Aberdeen manager, McInnes know an upset is possible. Firstly, however, he requires his team to believe it is possible. “We did say the very first game at Fraserburgh in the group stage to try and see the bigger picture and that Hampden was not as far away as you think, to picture that,” McInnes recalled. The former Aberdeen manager casts his mind back to May 2018 and securing a victory at Celtic Park that guaranteed his team would finish second in the Premiership ahead of Rangers. It was an outlier in meetings between McInnes and Brendan Rodgers, but evidence that it is not beyond him.
