JOE Lewis is hopeful that helping Aberdeen to beat Celtic and win the William Hill Scottish Cup at Hampden tomorrow can aid his father’s recovery from a stroke.
Lewis, the former Peterborough, Blackpool and Fulham keeper, is set to line up in goals for Derek McInnes’s side in a cup final against Brendan Rodgers's team for the second time this year.
The 29-year-old Englishman is optimistic the Pittodrie club can perform better than they did in the Betfred Cup final back in November when they were comfortably beaten 3-0.
He feels if they can end a 27 year drought in the competition it will give his dad Michael, who will be unable to attend the game due to ill health, a huge lift.
“He hasn’t been very well recently and won’t be able to come up,” said Lewis. “He will be watching on television and cheering us on. He is out of hospital, but he isn’t able to travel very far just now.
“He has seen plenty of games on television and I have got him a code for RedTV as well. He watches all the games and highlights and follows me closely. It would be great to take a medal back down to him. He would love that.
“He used to come to the majority of my games. We used to train Tuesday and Thursday nights and on Friday it would be goalkeeping training and then games on a Saturday and Sunday morning. When I was a kid he used to drive me everywhere. It would be good to go back with a medal for him."
Lewis and his Aberdeen team mates have lost all five of their meetings with a Celtic side which is bidding to complete the domestic season undefeated and win the treble this season.
The most painful defeat they suffered came in the Betfred Cup final last year when they conceded soft first half goals to Tom Rogic and James Forrest and ended up losing 3-0.
But the north-east club went on an excellent run of form after that painful result and finished second in the Ladbrokes Premiership for the third season running – nine points ahead of Rangers.
The keeper is confident they will give a decent account of themselves tomorrow and can end their losing streak against their Glasgow rivals when it matters the most.
“I think we need to be positive,” he said. “That League Cup final game it wasn’t the Aberdeen team we have seen throughout the season.
“We need to be positive and on the front foot and it’s about 90 minutes plus concentration. They have quality and if you switch off you get punished against good teams.
“We’re a better team than we were in the final. From the middle of December onwards we went on a great run. We had eight games in a row winning and we showed great form. Players individually came into some great form as well. We have learned a lot of lessons throughout the season as well.”
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