Are Aberdeen now coming of age or have they growing up still to do?

He is uneasy about excitable talk of Aberdeen being seen as favourites to win the Scottish League Cup and when he spoke to reporters after Falkirk were routed on Wednesday night, and again yesterday, his message was consistent and clear: "We shouldn't have any greater expectation than anybody else," he said. "As a club with our history, I get it, but as a team I don't think there is any added pressure on us. Every team will be quietly confident that it could be them going all the way."

There are three factors which have combined to create a bubble of excitement about Aberdeen and this League Cup. Firstly, the eliminations of Rangers and especially Celtic has opened up this year's competition. It is up for grabs for everyone now. For the third consecutive year it will be won by a non-Old Firm club and just about every one of the quarter-finalists can fancy themselves to some extent.

Secondly, Aberdeen have started their campaign in manner that has justified the pre-season anticipation. They were forced to send out a weakened team against Falkirk but it looked anything but that. The absences of Niall McGinn, Willo Flood, Russell Anderson and Barry Robson was rendered irrelevant by the vibrant performance of a team with an average age of 22. Cammy Smith, 18, and Nicky Low, 21, were especially impressive in midfield while Ryan Jack, also 21, again played with a classy mix of composure and intelligence. Joe Shaughnessy, Peter Pawlett and Clark Robertson also contributed to the 5-0 rout. When Craig Murray came off the bench it meant that Aberdeen had used seven players reared from their own youth system.

The third factor which contributes to Aberdeen's excitement being so easily inflamed is just how long the club and its supporters have waited for something, anything, to celebrate. It is astonishing that a club with either the third or fourth-largest average home crowds and turnover in the country have gone so long without making any impression in the cups. It is 13 years since they even reached a final. Big episodes in Scottish football - the entire Martin O'Neill and Gordon Strachan eras, Walter Smith's second spell with Rangers - have come and gone since Ebbe Skovdahl took them to both cup finals in 1999-2000 (they were well beaten by Celtic and then Rangers). If McInnes reaches a final he will have gone further than Steve Paterson, Jimmy Calderwood, Mark McGhee or Craig Brown.

What has been so deeply galling for the Aberdeen support since the club's last trophy, the 1995 League Cup triumph against Dundee, is how many other clubs have won things since then. In the intervening 18 years, Livingston, Hibernian, Kilmarnock and St Mirren have all intruded on the Old Firm's control of the League Cup. Kilmarnock and Dundee United have won the Scottish Cup, while Hearts - the club Aberdeen competes with for the distinction of being Scotland's third biggest - lifted it in 1998, 2006 and 2012. Dunfermline Athletic (three times), Ayr United, Dundee, Queen of the South, Ross County and Gretna, a club which does not even exist any more, have all been to finals more recently than Aberdeen.

All of that explains the longing and speed with which expectation can spread like wildfire through the fans. There was evidence of that when they got a crowd of more than 20,000 for the visit of Celtic on the back of an encouraging summer of transfer work and opening wins against Kilmarnock and Motherwell. They lost that game against the champions and were then beaten at Hearts, drew with St Johnstone and flirted with a cup exit against Alloa Athletic before defeating them on penalties. But currently they have kept five clean sheets in a row and scored nine times against Partick Thistle, Inverness Caledonian Thistle and Falkirk.

The bookmakers had them at 7/2 League Cup favourites before the quarter-final draw was made yesterday afternoon, odds which moved slightly to 4/1 when they were drawn away to Motherwell. "We can't stop what outside forces say or predict about us, but there won't be anybody in our dressing room saying we're favourites," insisted McInnes. "We know that if we lose the next couple of games before the next round of the cup things would change again. It can all change quickly.

"I don't get too concerned about it. We all just have to concentrate on doing our job, that's all the players and staff can do. You win two or three in a row, like we did at the start of the campaign, and we're made to be this and that, which we're not. And then we lose a couple of games and it seems to be doom and gloom and a lot of despair. I've tried to tell the players just to keep a steady lid on things and just move on from game to game. We need to trust what we're doing. Regardless of the opposition we're capable of winning each and every game we play. We won't manage that, but we have to try without getting too concerned about outside factors."

For as long as Aberdeen remain in the cup, and the closer they get to Ibrox or Parkhead - the venue for the final, with Hampden unavailable - the less chance there will be of McInnes managing to keep a lid on Pittodrie's bubbling excitement. After all, they have been waiting to see something since before the world knew about the internet.