When Derek McInnes helped deliver Aberdeen’s first clump of silverware in 19 years back in 2014, the sigh of gasping, jubilant relief just about whipped up a tidal surge on the city’s esplanade.

Nearly two decades without a trophy was such a prolonged drought, the Pittodrie trophy cabinet was in danger of appearing on SEPA’s Water Scarcity Index. With success, of course, comes heightened expectation and bigger demands. McInnes is well aware of that.

“The motivation for an Aberdeen player or manager should always be to win trophies,” he said as the build up to this weekend’s Betfred Cup final with Celtic began yesterday with a media sit down with the respective managers at Hampden. “When I look back to the first final (in 2014), when we won in my first year, that was a trophy that we just had to win.

“The weight of expectation was on everybody, especially myself, for that one. And I still feel the weight of expectation, even though it’s our fourth final in a short period of time. It (one trophy) is not enough but I’d rather be in semi-finals and finals than being dumped out. Criticism comes when you don’t win them, but at least we’re not being criticised for not getting to them.

“I’m proud of the fact we’ve been to so many semi-finals and finals and have been in Europe every year. No other team outwith Celtic has done that in Scotland and I’m proud of this team.

“We don’t expect to be the favourites against the Old Firm, especially cup finals in Glasgow. But we know we can deliver. We’re playing against a bigger squad, a better squad and a bigger club in Celtic. But we can deliver a bigger performance on the day – and win the trophy.”

You couldn’t blame McInnes if he was sick of the sight of Celtic. You half expect that he gets a peek of himself in a mirror and there are Celtic players goading him through his own reflection.

McInnes and Aberdeen lost both the League Cup final in 2016 and the Scottish Cup final a year later to their pesky Glasgow rivals while his well-documented record in general against Celtic has often been used as a stick with which to beat him.

The last two meeting between the sides have been closely fought affairs, though, with Celtic winning 1-0 on league duty back in September and Aberdeen edging it by a similar margin in May.

Asked if some of the regular reversals weighed heavily on him, the 47-year-old added: “No, I don’t worry. I think, in my time as St Johnstone manager, we’ve won at Celtic Park.

“In my time as Aberdeen manager, we’ve won in the cup there. We’ve won there in the league now. Obviously, we’ve not beaten Celtic at Hampden and that’s the next step for us We’ve lost two finals here against them, with two contrasting performances from us.

“The last two Celtic games have been decided by the odd goal and in both games, we got the balance between attacking and defending spot on. You know when you play against this Celtic team that you’re going to have to be disciplined, resolute, aggressive and fully concentrated.”

There are certain things manager’s can’t control, of course. The rise of Ryan Christie, who was on loan to Aberdeen from Celtic last season, has accelerated in recent weeks as he continues to establish himself for club and country.

McInnes would have loved to have kept him in the Granite City but is happy that the 23-year-old is now fulfilling his potential in Glasgow.

“He was a big player for me and he’s become a big player for Celtic and Scotland over the last couple of games,” said McInnes. “Sometimes coaches and managers can take too much credit for players. For me, Ryan deserves the credit. He’s grasped his opportunity at Celtic when it didn’t look like it was coming.

“He’s in good company with a good squad of players, but he’s doing now what he was doing for me. He had to prove himself all over again at Celtic and probably felt for long periods he was on his way out. He’s secured a new contract there and he is up and running with his career at Celtic. He’s well on his way now.”

Aberdeen’s route to Sunday’s showpiece required them to overcome three Premiership teams in St Mirren, Hibernian and Rangers. It’s been a tough road to Hampden.

“It is getting harder to win a trophy,” conceded McInnes. “If we go and win this, we’ll have beaten four Premiership teams. I don’t think there will be many teams who have endured those types of games to win a trophy.

“If we’re going to do it, we’ll have done it the hard way. But we’re not just coming here at the weekend to fulfil a fixture. A lot of people might see it that way ... but we certainly don’t.”