Chris Cadden is hoping to make it two out of three at Hampden as he seeks to get his hands on his first piece of senior silverware this season.
At the national stadium two years ago Cadden returned to the Motherwell Under-20s to lead them to an historic Youth Cup final win over Hearts, bringing the trophy back to Fir Park for the first time.
While that match was played out in front of just under 3000 fans, more than 50,000 were at Hampden in November to watch Cadden and Motherwell go down 2-0 to Celtic in the Betfred Cup final.
It was a painful blow for a team who held their own for much of the game, but they now stand just one win away from having another crack at a major final.
“I’m looking forward to it,” said Cadden of Saturday’s game with Aberdeen. “It was good the last time we were there for the League Cup semi against Rangers, when we won 2-0. You can see what that does for a club like Motherwell.
“Motherwell getting into a semi-final twice in one season does not happen very often. We will relish it against Aberdeen and we have had that experience the last time to help us and will go there full of confidence.
“The League Cup final? Yes I’ve watched it back now. It was a hard watch. But we went for it, tried to win.
“I was there before as captain of Motherwell in the Youth Cup final which was great but it didn’t compare to the League Cup final which was brilliant.
“As a young player, it was a great learning experience. Getting there just made me more hungry to get back again. You don’t want that to be your last final. You want to get back and we will try to do that in the semi against Aberdeen.”
In the previous crusades to Hampden, the figure of Louis Moult featured prominently. It was his two goals that saw off Rangers in the Betfred Cup semi-final, while in the final the man now plying his trade for Preston was denied a leveller with the game sitting at 1-0 by an acrobatic save from Craig Gordon.
Since his departure in January, Curtis Main has stepped into the scoring breach and Cadden reckons he has what it takes to be the Hampden hero this time around.
“Curtis Main has stepped up and done really well since he came here and Ryan Bowman has played well too,” said Cadden, who played during the week in Tuesday’s 2-0 home defeat to Derek McInnes’ men. “Against Rangers last week, for me Curtis was the best man on the field. He was unplayable. He bullied them. He has great strength. He has stepped up to the plate and is in form.
“We have to be better in the semi than we were at Fir Park. Aberdeen are a good team with good players . We know that. It was not the best of games in the league.
““With the top six gone, although we want to finish as high as possible and get seventh place, the Scottish Cup is very important.”
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