Aberdeen’s Nicky Devlin targets Premier Sports Cup final place as Celtic showdown approaches

Nicky Devlin wants to end a huge week for Aberdeen by clinching a Premier Sports Cup final place when they face Celtic on Saturday.

After a dramatic late winner against Dundee United at Pittodrie last weekend, Jimmy Thelin’s side beat Rangers 2-1 at home on Wednesday night to remain level on points with the Parkhead side at the top of the William Hill Premiership and nine points clear of the Light Blues.

Devlin, who scored the opener and assisted Shayden Morris’s winner against Philippe Clement’s struggling side, noted that the Dons recently came from two goals down to draw 2-2 with Celtic at Parkhead the week previous to the United win.

READ MORE:Celtic 6-0 Aberdeen as unbeaten run comes to an end in heartbreaking fashion

READ MORE:Celtic v Aberdeen: TV channel, live stream, team news and more for League Cup semi-final showdown

Looking ahead to the cup game, where the winners will face either Rangers or Motherwell in the final, the 31-year-old full-back said: “We’ll go to Hampden and try and get a result again.

“We obviously showed the last time against Celtic that we can obviously score goals against them.

“We have to bring that second-half performance against Celtic from the very start because obviously I think the first half against Celtic wasn’t great.

“We probably let them get too much of a foothold in the game.

“They scored a couple of goals. So we know we need to keep it a wee bit tighter at the back against them.

“But we know we’ve got goals within the team.”

Join our Aberdeen FC Facebook group for all the latest Dons news

Despite remarkably going 16 games unbeaten – 15 of them wins – since Thelin took over in the summer, Devlin believes there is more to come from the Granite City side.

The former Ayr United, Walsall and Livingston defender said: “I think we’ve shown probably in a lot of the games that it’s been spells we’ve been good.

“Even the first half against Rangers we were really good in the first half and then for the second half we weren’t so good.

“To be honest I think come Saturday, if we want to go through, we probably will have to put a 90-minute performance in or 120, whatever it may be.

“I don’t think we can probably be as poor in the first half as we were at Parkhead. Again, we have to be better on that.

“As I said, if anyone’s been watching us, I think they’d probably say we’ve been good in spells in games.

“I think there’s still loads the manager wants us to improve on.”

Sign up to our Aberdeen F.C newsletter to get the latest headlines, transfer news and more sent to your inbox

Devlin notched his fourth of the season but admits he should have had more.

The Scotland cap said: “It’s something since the manager’s come in, he’s stressed, he’s wanted me to find myself in the box more.

“I’ve scored four now but it should be seven or eight. To be fair, I have missed chances as well.

“It’s something the coaching staff and the manager have worked on with me, to make sure I find myself in areas where I can score.

“Luckily enough on Wednesday it fell to me a couple of times. Yeah, it was good.”