Greg Stewart does not want to look back at the end of his career and regret not winning a trophy.
And the on-loan Aberdeen midfielder sees the Scottish Cup as the ideal way of achieving his aim.
The Dons take on St Mirren in the fourth round at Pittodrie today looking to go on and lift the trophy for what would be the first time since 1990.
Stewart’s record in the tournament is not great – the farthest he has been so far is the quarter-finals with Dundee as they went down 4-0 to Rangers in 2016. He was also in the Dark Blues side that beat Aberdeen 2-1 the season before.
He said: “You want to lift trophies. You don’t want to look back on your career having not won a trophy. I’ve never played at Hampden either. It’s an ambition for every Scottish player. My record with Dundee wasn’t great – we got to the quarter-final and got beat by Rangers. Hopefully I can go two better this time.
“The cup is massive for us. We want to do well and hopefully lift it at the end of the season. I watched the final last season (when Celtic beat Aberdeen 2-1) and I’m sure that hurt the boys. They’ll want to go one better this season.”
St Mirren are a side that cannot be taken lightly. Going well at the top of the Championship, the Buddies designs on getting promoted back to the top flight for the first time since 2015 and in Jack Ross have a manager earning plaudits for his work.
Stewart added: “St Mirren are doing well – Jack Ross has got them playing good stuff and they’ll be playing with confidence. They’ve got nothing to lose.
“There’s a lot of pressure on us to do well from the fans. We want to give them something to cheer at the end of the season.
“After we’ve had a break we’re now playing Saturday-Wednesday for the next few weeks. It’ll be hectic but we’ve got a big enough squad to deal with that. We’ll focus on Saturday first and hopefully we can bring our A-game.”
The 27-year-old has another year left on his Birmingham City contract but admits his future at St Andrews has not entered his thoughts.
He said: “It’s more about getting back to doing what I can do and worry about that later on.
“I feel like I’m starting to come into my game again. The manager, staff and players have been brilliant and hopefully I can kick on in the second half of the season.”