ROSS McCrorie believes the Scotland call-ups that Aberdeen’s players have received this season show the level the Pittodrie club have been performing at and insisted they will go into the William Hill Scottish Cup semi-final with Celtic confident of victory.
McCrorie and Andrew Considine were drafted into Steve Clarke’s squad for the Nations League double header against Slovakia and the Czech Republic earlier this month and his team mate started in both fixtures at centre half.
The midfielder feels their involvement was an indication of the form that Derek McInnes’s side, who drew 3-3 with Neil Lennon’s team at home in the Premiership on Sunday, have shown during the 2020/21 campaign.
The former Rangers player stressed they will take to the field at Hampden on Sunday believing they are capable of knocking out the defending champions, who are two games away from a fourth consecutive treble, and reaching the final.
“We go into every game with confidence because we have a good squad and real depth,” he said. “You only have to look at our squad. I think you have to go into every game believing you can win. We will rest up for the next couple of days, do our bit and look towards the weekend.”
“We were disappointed not to win on Sunday. Both sides were at it and had a lot of chances and goals. We will take a point at the end of the day, but we are so disappointed not to have taken all three. We had our chances.
“We have a lot of character in the team. All the boys will push each other on. We never let the heads go down and believe we can in a game. I think that showed on Sunday with our never say die attitude. But we just now look forward towards the semi-final.
“Both teams will be desperate to get to the final. It is a semi-final and we will both be looking to win. We will do the analysis of this game and go into the next game with a bit of confidence that we can go and do something.”
McCrorie, who joined Aberdeen from Rangers back in August, has been playing consistently well in recent weeks and admitted he was delighted to be promoted from the Scotland Under-21 set-up into the full squad as a result of his eye-catching displays.
“I was fair chuffed,” he said. “I had the 21s, but I took a phone call from the gaffer (McInnes) to tell me I was getting the call up. My family and I were proud, but I want to take that next step and try to get some game time.
“It is massive and shows how well the team has done this season. We are getting individual plaudits and myself and Andy got the call-ups, but our full concentration is on Aberdeen and doing the best we can here.”
McInnes tipped Lewis Ferguson, who plays with McCrorie at club and age-group international level, to represent Scotland in future after the midfielder had scored two penalties against Celtic on Sunday. His team mate believes he is more than capable.
“He has been brilliant all season,” he said. “I think (Sam) Cosgrove tried to take the penalty at the end, but Fergie hasn’t missed a penalty yet. You have confidence he will score every time from the spot.”
McCorrie is optimistic the return of Cosgrove, who has been Aberdeen’s top scorer in the last two seasons, and other players will enable the Pittodrie club to improve further in the coming weeks.
“Matty Kennedy was on the bench, Sam is still working his way back to full fitness and we have a lot of other talented boys on the bench and not in the squad,” he said. “I still feel we have another level to go and we can still get stronger and we will see where that takes us come the end of the season.”
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