He may not have played in the 2012 Scottish Cup final but talk of that occasion still gives Callum Booth a shuddering sense of the heebie-jeebies.
The 25-year-old was part of the Hibernian squad which reached the domestic showpiece at Hampden only to suffer a harrowing 5-1 defeat to old foes Hearts which just about meant they had to travel back to their Leith base with a UN protection force. That calamitous reversal still preys on Booth's mind and the Stranraer-born left back is eager to continue on the road back to the national stadium this weekend and make amends with Partick Thistle as they face Aberdeen in a Scottish Cup tie at Pittodrie for the first time since 1947.
The Jags are in the midst of a rousing renaissance and have won four matches on the spin in all competitions while vaulting up into the top six of the Ladbrokes Premiership. Alan Archibald’s troops will be charging up the A90 with a considerable spring in their steps.
“I only have a bad memory of the Scottish Cup and it is that final,” said Booth. “The recent run with Thistle has been absolutely brilliant, though. Long may that continue.
“It wasn’t long ago that we weren’t getting the rub of the green and we were conceding last minute goals but we always knew we had the players within our changing room who were capable of going on a winning run.
“I’ve not had many happy experiences of Pittodrie, I think the best I’ve done is to come away with a couple of draws here and there. I don’t think I have ever won there which isn’t great.
“But I hadn’t played in a side which had beaten Hearts until last week so maybe this the time for these kind of things to be changing.
Archibald, meanwhile, is savouring his side’s upsurge in form and is urging his players to seize the moment in the cup and go all out for victory against an Aberdeen side still smarting from a defeat to Hamilton in midweek.
Archibald, who played for Thistle in the 2002 Scottish Cup semi-finals and was a beaten finalist with Dundee United in 2005, said: “We can put the league on the back burner for a bit and go and throw everything at it. That's the plan, to have a real go. At this stage of the cup, everybody starts looking to Hampden. You know you're that close to it and it just takes one massive performance.
"I don't read too much into it (the Hamilton defeat) because Aberdeen were outstanding. I don't think they'll be too down about it. There'll be a bit of a backlash to Tuesday and we need to be ready for that.
“Pittodrie will be a hard place to go, especially the first 5-10 minutes but if you ride that out, you can get the fans frustrated and we think we've enough quality to go and hurt them.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here