Aberdeen right-back Nicky Devlin is determined to limit the threat of Celtic winger Daizen Maeda in the top-of-the-table clash at Pittodrie.
Devlin was up against the Japan international in the Premier Sports Cup semi-final at Hampden last month.
Maeda scored a hat-trick as Celtic won 6-0 in the first setback under Dons manager Jimmy Thelin.
Devlin revealed that is the only game where Thelin has conducted an immediate in-depth post-mortem.
Scotland international Devlin insists lessons have been learned by the Dons – including by himself ahead of facing Maeda again.
Aberdeen can slash the gap on Premiership leaders Celtic to just one point with a victory on Wednesday night.
Devlin, 31, said: “I’d hold my hands up and say Maeda definitely got the better of me on that day as he got a hat-trick.
“If I’m selected and if he’s selected on Wednesday then hopefully I won’t let it happen again.
“It’s probably one of the only times the manager has went over the game straight after it.
“The manager obviously showed the areas he thought we should have done a lot better in and where we have to improve.
“There are areas we’re going to have to improve on if we want to take a positive result against Celtic.”
‘Celtic were pumped up on the day’
From the outset at Hampden, the 22-times capped Japan winger seemed pumped up against Devlin in the semi-final.
Maeda produced one of his strongest performances of the season to fire Celtic to the final.
Devlin said: “There was a few early bumps in the game.
“I’ve not had anything with him (Maeda) before to be fair.
“I felt it, which is out of character for him.
“Celtic were pumped up on the day.
“They probably didn’t like the result a couple of weeks before at Parkhead (2-2 draw).
“That probably maybe added a wee bit for them to the game.”
‘We want to win because it benefits us’
Aberdeen raced to a sensational 11 game unbeaten start to the Premiership campaign under Thelin, with 10 wins.
That form placed them level on points with Celtic at the top of the table.
However, the Reds’ unbeaten run ended with a 2-1 loss at St Mirren before draws at Hearts and Hibs.
Celtic have opened up a four point gap on the Dons and 11 points on third-placed Rangers.
There is already speculation about an “invincible” season where the Hoops remain undefeated in the Premiership.
Devlin is determined to prevent that – but says that is all the Dons can control.
He said: “Celtic have started the season really well in both domestic and European competition.
“But in terms of the invincibles stuff, we can obviously only affect when we go up against them.
“Hopefully it will be four times over the course of the season.
“We can only affect those four league games.
“So the other 34 games we have no control over that.
“All we can do is try and beat them when we play them.
“That’s all we focus on, really.
“We don’t want to win to stop Celtic winning every game or end their unbeaten run.
“We want to win because it benefits us.”
Confidence from draw at Parkhead
Aberdeen are the only team to have taken points from Celtic this season, a 2-2 draw at Parkhead in October.
Thelin’s side were two goals down at half-time but fought back to earn a draw.
Devlin said: “We have to take confidence from that.
“That’s obviously the game we’d like to focus on more out of the previous two with Celtic.
“We weren’t in a good position in that game but we managed to change a few things at half-time.
“Then we came back out in the second half and were much better.
“And we could have potentially even won the game.
“We the positives from the things we did well in that game that we felt hurt Celtic and try and use them again on Wednesday.”
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