After waiting 18 years to win a trophy it is no hardship for Aberdeen to hold on for another three months.

There were countless rewarding aspects of reaching the semi-finals of the Scottish League Cup for them, including the 12 weeks of growing excitement guaranteed before taking on St Johnstone at the start of February. The wait ensures that a sense of momentum will continue around Pittodrie whatever happens to their SPFL Premiership form.

Aberdeen have been in this territory before - most recently two semi-finals in 2011 and another in 2012, losing them all - and claims have been made about their credentials that they were not able to justify. The current team genuinely looks more convincing, as they demonstrated by enduring a 13th-minute red card against Motherwell and still going on to deliver a 2-0 win at Fir Park. It was a performance of terrific defensive discipline and organisation as the platform for two late counter-attacking goals.

"We've got a harder mentality now," said defender Andrew Considine. The 26-year-old started on the bench but was brought on after Joe Shaughnessy's dismissal and scored the 83rd-minute opening goal. "The younger lads have really grown up and that helps the squad a lot. The likes of Barry [Robson] and Willo [Flood] have been great and added real experience, but the young boys have been brilliant. That can all make a difference when the pressure is on, as it will be in the semi-final. You saw it against Motherwell. When our backs were against the wall, the boys were more than happy to take a touch and try and pass it about. It was really good."

Manager Derek McInnes talked afterwards about how expectation can sometimes "choke" Aberdeen, given the longing for silverware during the barren years which have followed the 1980s heyday. As a local boy, who was eight the last time the club won a trophy, no-one needs to tell Considine about how hopes have been raised then dashed by letdowns. "I know that, absolutely. We have reached semis in the past four or five years and the defeats have been tough to take. We've met Celtic a couple of times and we haven't managed to get over that final hurdle. It would be great to get over that. The boys deserve it for the way they have been playing.

"I feel we have a really strong squad compared to previous years. The gaffer has brought in new boys but also given belief to those who were already here. That's especially the case with the young guys; they are really excelling. The gaffer has put his faith in them and they are repaying him.

"It's always a pressure playing at Aberdeen because the club was very successful. That's always there, but we have a good enough team to handle that and I think it is showing. We just need to keep our heads down and focus on each game as it comes. No-one will be getting carried away."

Not least the manager. McInnes has developed a regular refrain this season whenever the notion of Aberdeen being successful has been put to him and those sentiments were employed again after the semi-final draw. "I can understand possibly why we're favourites but you've got Inverness who had a great season last year, St Johnstone who got into Europe, and Hearts who dug out a result the other night when everybody had written them off. Any game is going to be challenge. Someone has to be the favourites so if people are saying that it's us then we just need to deal with that."

They will also have to deal with his former club, by no means an easy task. "St Johnstone is going to be a challenge," McInnes said. "They're going along well, steadily improving. It seems a bit bizarre, you can't really talk about the game as it's three months away. We're just hoping we can go into that game in a decent bit of form and a good frame of mind. We would have grabbed that at the start of the season, being 90 minutes away from our first final for a while. We've have taken that all day long."