Morton chairman Douglas Rae has been through the full gamut of emotions in his many decades connected with the club, but the last fortnight may just have topped the lot.

And manager Jim Duffy is now hoping he can round off a hugely eventful two weeks for Rae by guiding his beloved side to a shock victory over Aberdeen in tomorrow’s BetFred Cup semi-final.

There will be no prouder man on the day as the Cappielow side walk out at Hampden to contest their first major semi-final for 35 years according to Duffy.

And he hopes that the performance put on by his players will make all of those years away from the national stadium seem worthwhile.

“It will be a pleasing day for him,” Duffy said, “although not as pleasing as last week when he was away getting his OBE from Buckingham Palace. It doesn’t quite compare to going down to Buckingham Palace for an honour like that.

“Nevertheless it’s been not a bad couple of weeks for him. He gets his OBE, last week we win five-nothing at Queen of the South and this week he has a semi-final at Hampden, so it’s been not a bad fortnight for the chairman.

“When he sits in his seat in the director’s box and looks out at his team coming out to play a major semi-final at Hampden, I think he’ll be a proud man.

“That will only last until the whistle goes, and then he will be a fan like any other fan and will want us to do well.

“The build up to the game as the teams come out and line-up, all of that will bring a degree of pride to the chairman, but ultimately it is about the performance.

“If his team performs ultimately as it can, to me that will be much more important on the day.”

While many managers may seek to play down an occasion like tomorrow’s semi-final and insist it was business as usual, Duffy contends that due deference must be paid to the occasion and the opposition.

That’s why he has altered Morton’s routine slightly this week, as he looks to harness the excitement and nervous energy of his players into a system that can upset Aberdeen and ultimately lead his side to victory.

“The players looking forward to it, and there are a few nerves and a bit of an edge, but also a real degree of excitement,” he said.

“Hopefully we can get the balance right between using the nerves to spur you on and help your concentration, and not let that get the better of you on the day.

“I think you’ve got to respect the fact that you are playing a top Premiership team in a major semi-final, so you’ve got to adapt to that. I don’t think you can just turn up and hope that on the day it all clicks into place.

“We’ve got young boys and you don’t really know how they are going to perform. It can go one of two ways, they can go out there and really thrive on the occasion, or they can go out there and really be fazed by it.

“If we play at our very, very best we’ll still need Aberdeen to be a level or two down on their best.

“If that happens we will have an opportunity to get a result. It is going to be unbelievably tough, and I don’t think people should underestimate the gulf between the clubs from the stadium to the fanbase and the finances, to the quality and experience they will have on the pitch.

“They’ve not only won the cup recently, they’ve also been in four major semi-finals, and I don’t know if any of our boys have been in one.

“We’re trying to get the balance right between respecting the opposition and not going there fearful of them.

“We’ve got to understand the level of Aberdeen, but our job on Saturday is to make it as difficult a game for them as possible and see if we can pull off a major upset.”