GREG STEWART will look around the snow-peppered grounds of Pittodrie today and realise he’s not in Kansas anymore.
But the Aberdeen forward is hopeful their recent jaunt to Dubai can help conjure up some wizardly to banish the winter blues and St Mirren on the way to an historic Scottish Cup campaign.
Aberdeen jetted home from the United Arab Emirates on Monday after six days in the sunshine just in time for their home city to resemble a shooting location for the next series of Game of Thrones. Spotting a few Wildlings stoating about Union Street of a Saturday evening is no rare sight.
In that space of time Stewart and his team mates have swapped camels for huskies, but the former Dundee man is drawing on the benefits of their winter trip away to warm the cockles as they take their first crunchy snow steps into this year’s Scottish Cup campaign.
“It’s been a nice little break for the boys to recharging the batteries and we had a good week in Dubai training and getting the legs going again,” he said.
“It was a good trip away and we’ve worked hard since we came back. It’s a big game at the weekend as it’s a cup we really want to do well in. St Mirren are flying as well in their league so it’s going to be a tough game, but we’ve trained all week and we’re more than ready.
“We can only say Dubai has been beneficial in the next few months. It feels like it has been, but performances and results in the next few weeks will determine how good a trip it was.”
Stewart only joined up with Aberdeen in the summer, completing a season-long loan move from Birmingham City in June. However, the pain felt by his team-mates a month earlier in the Scottish Cup final is not lost on the 27-year-old.
Derek McInnes’ side were undone by a last-gasp Tom Rogic goal at Hampden to deny them their first Scottish Cup since 1990, and it’s fair to say the pain of that day is still fuelling the fires burning away at Pittodrie.
“I watched the cup final last year and Aberdeen were really unlucky. I’m sure they hurt for a few weeks after that game and I’m sure that they’ll be wanting to go one better this time around and hopefully lift it. As I say we don’t want to look too far ahead as St Mirren is going to be a tricky game,” he said.
“Both teams are doing really well so it’s a game that’s got the potential to be a good one. I would say we’re more than prepared and I’d say I’m more looking forward to it than anything.”
Meanwhile, Craig Samson, the St. Mirren goalkeeper, has denied this is an opportunity for St. Mirren, who are eight points clear at the top of the Ladbrokes Championship table, to show they deserve to be in the Premiership.
“I don’t see it like that,” he said. “It is a one off game and it’s a cup tie. I think when you are going into the league you play the game slightly different.
“We are going up there as a team in great form, but they have been a top team for a number of years. The players they have got are Scotland internationalists, they have got a manager that a number of clubs have been wanting.
“But we’ve got a plan. We have worked on a lot of things with our management team this week that we feel will frustrate them. For me, it is a break from the league for us, it is a really good game and we can go and express ourselves.
“It is on the television so it is good for the boys playing in the game, but I wouldn’t say it gauges where we are going to be any time soon.
“If you are in the same league as them then you are gauging yourself against them all the time, but in a one-off game anything can happen.”
Samson, who played when St. Mirren knocked Aberdeen out of the League Cup at Pittodrie back in 2012, admitted Jack Ross’s side are in confident mood.
“There is an expectation at this football club at the moment that we can win any game we are going into,” he said. “That is something that the boys have been thriving on. But it is a massive task.”
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