SCOTTISH Cup final day was always a big deal in the McInnes household. The young inspiring footballer would sit beside his dad from the first minute of the build-up until it was all over and then he would go out to play football with his mates.

It didn’t matter who was in the final, it was always special, although ironically as this was the 1980s it would tend to be Aberdeen at Hampden, winning it as they did four times between 1982 and 1990 – the last occasion the famous trophy was at Pittodrie.

And now aged 45, with a few years in the managerial game, McInnes has the chance to make those boyhood dreams become reality.

“I’m just delighted we have a shot at winning this bit of silverware because I think the players have earned the opportunity,” he said. “We’ve beaten some good teams to get there but we now face the best team to try to win it.

“The Scottish Cup final has always been special for me, when I was a boy growing up, the last game of the season, regardless of who was playing, it was always a big deal in my house and it still is. It’s such a brilliant day in the calendar and I’m delighted we’re involved in it.

“I watched with my dad when I was younger, then with my mates as a teenager. I loved the build-up, my dad sitting with a couple of cans of beer and we’d watch the game. The last few years I’ve been on holiday when the final has been played but myself and my boys will always find a place to watch it. So this time it’s nice to be involved and have others watching us.”

McInnes laughs when asked if he is conscious that it has been 17 years since Aberdeen last won the Scottish Cup. He is speaking in the Pittodrie boardroom where the walls are covered with pictures of the glory days. There is Martin Buchan next to Willie Miller, with a certain former manager of that parish dominating. The current boss could hardly not be reminded of what has gone on before.

“Even going back to our era, Aberdeen were synonymous with winning the Scottish Cup, you can clearly remember the celebrations,” he said. “It would be brilliant to do exactly that, to mirror those successful Scottish Cup teams. We’ll go there believing it can be our day but the odds are stacked against us and it would be a huge shock if we won, and a real significant victory.

“We have to get the balance right between attack and defence. We have to deny them space – they have players who can score out of nothing, like Leigh Griffiths both at Parkhead and Pittodrie. They have threats from set plays as well.

“But from open play, when the game becomes quicker for their ball carriers and their good players have space to work, that’s when they’re the biggest danger. So we have to deny them the space but still have to attack, still have a purpose when we go forward and a way of playing which upsets and annoys them.”

Even if Celtic do win, McInnes will be able to hold his head high. He has finished the season comfortably ahead of Rangers and even Alex Ferguson couldn’t have done much about Brendan Rodgers’ all-conquering team.

However, Aberdeen are a good side, put together on a shoestring. McInnes has not got many signings wrong, his team play attractive football and they win a lot more than they lose.

In Jonny Hayes, Adam Rooney, Kenny McLean, Niall McGinn and the superb captain Graeme Shinnie, they have players who would have got into the Alex Smith team which won both domestic cups in the 1989/90 season.

If Celtic do have an off day then the men in red might just pull off one of the cup final’s bigger shocks.

“Although we had a tighter squad this season I felt I had a better squad,” McInnes said. “You can only ever judge if your squad is better at the end of the season when you reflect. But, certainly, up until now there’s been enough to suggest this squad has been the best we’ve had yet.

“We all work hard, the club is busy. The last few years we’ve been as we should be. We’ve been prominent; we’ve been trying to improve standards.

“I feel I am demanding of my staff to be as good as we can be. I am demanding of my players to be as good as they can be. So when you see everyone working flat out to be successful it would be brilliant if we can get a reward from that. And the reward comes from winning, not from losing.”

This will be the last game McGinn plays for Aberdeen. Same goes for Ash Taylor, Ryan Jack, if he’s fit, and Peter Pawlett who has fallen out of the picture in recent times.

“I’ve already said to two or three of them, who we know for sure are leaving, make sure your last game for Aberdeen is us sitting in the dressing room together, bottle of beer and a winners’ medal in your hand,” McInnes said.

“I think it’s important that you arrive at a club with a certain perception. It’s really important how you leave a club.

“And I think if players can leave with a winners’ medal then it’s a great way to go. If you can write the story, McGinn, Pawlett, whoever else who may be leaving, it would be really fitting if they left as a winner.”

Aberdeen beat Celtic in the 1990, 1984 and 1970 Scottish Cup finals. But never before has one of the sides been such favourites, even going back to 1970 when it was Jock Stein’s great side who made the European Cup that year.

McInnes knows this and while he will need every planet in the galaxy to be aligned for him, at least Aberdeen have a shot.

He said: “I’ve said often enough how impressed I am with Celtic’s work and improved performances by certain players and what signings have brought to the team. Their manager is manager of the year, quite rightly so. Their players have had player of the year and rightly so. There’s no real surprise, really, when the awards are getting dished out.

“But there’s one award left and we are in with a chance. That’s the good thing about it. And I’d rather have that chance than be watching someone else taking it on.”