CURTIS MAIN’S career has been marked by the big occasion, from becoming Darlington’s youngest-ever debutant at the age of just 15 to lining up against the likes of John Terry, Branislav Ivanovic and Fernando Torres in the FA Cup.

But the Motherwell striker is in no doubt that one of the biggest games of his life lies ahead at Hampden Park at lunchtime today, as he goes all out to fire the Fir Park club to the Scottish Cup final.

Main has been a revelation since making the move to Lanarkshire in January, stepping into the breach left by the departure of Louis Moult seamlessly and hitting six goals so far in 15 appearances.

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His hunger for success has far from abated though, and that could spell trouble for Aberdeen this afternoon.

“Making your debut sticks in your mind and I was quite young when I did it, so that was a big one for me,” said Main.

“I went on to play in some decent games in the Championship and the FA Cup, but a Scottish Cup semi-final is a big one for me. If it’s not the biggest then it is right up there.

“I played for Middlesbrough against Chelsea in the FA Cup and Sunderland, too. So, I have been involved in big-game atmospheres before and come through the build-up and all the rest of it. This is nothing new in that respect, but this is obviously a semi-final and a very high-profile match.

“In the Chelsea game, I was up against Terry and Ivanovic and I remember Torres was playing for them as well. It was good to get up close to those kinds of players because you learn from those experiences.

“But the semi-final of any cup means you are one game away from the final. You are close to winning a trophy and real success and that is something I am hungry for.”

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For all Main’s quiet assuredness, he readily admits that Motherwell will go into today’s match as underdogs in the eyes of most observers, but he doesn’t think that a defeat to Aberdeen just a little over a week ago will have any bearing on this game, even though the Pittodrie side will be favourites to progress.

“I’m sure they will be,” he said. “League positions will help dictate that and Aberdeen picked up a good result against us last week.

“But I don’t believe that will have any bearing on the semi-final at all. It is a completely different game and we are all really looking forward to it.

“Obviously, that last result against Aberdeen wasn’t the best, but it gave us an idea of what things we maybe need to change and how we approach this game.

“In the first half, we were a bit flat and their game-plan worked really. They nullified what we were trying to do. In the second half, I felt we came out and dominated them for 20 minutes. I fancied us to go and get the first goal, but they scored from a set-piece and that sort of took the wind out of our sails. They then picked up another one to kill the game off.

“On Saturday, it will be about who implements their game-plan the best.”

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The normal rhetoric at a smaller club ahead of such occasions is that they must make the most of them, as trips to the national stadium don’t come around too often.

Motherwell of course, are no strangers to Hampden, with this being their fourth visit of the season, and Main says that the club is heading in a direction where these big games will become routine.

“The club has been to one cup final and is on the brink of another one,” Main said. “So, it shows where Motherwell are heading. That is the direction they want to be going in.

“They want to be competing in cup competitions, getting to finals and winning trophies. That is what the manager is trying to drive for the club and we are all on board for that.”