Caley Thistle captain Graeme Shinnie is determined to end his Inverness career on a high by holding aloft the Scottish Cup next month.
Shinnie will depart Caledonian Stadium at the end of the season, having signed a pre-contract with Scottish Premiership rivals Aberdeen.
The 23-year-old will lead Caley Jags out at Hampden Park tomorrow, with Premiership leaders Celtic standing between the Highlanders and their first Scottish Cup final.
Ronny Deila’s Hoops are warm favourites but Shinnie is intent on helping Inverness create history by helping them to their first major silverware, before he leaves for Pittodrie.
Shinnie said: “It would be amazing to progress.
“If we were to get through to the final, it would be my last game for the club. It would be probably one of my proudest moments if I was to wear the armband as well. That would be a huge honour.
“We’ll be looking to go to Hampden on Sunday and win the game. We’ve experienced losing semi-finals as we did to Hearts two years ago at Easter Road.
“It’s not nice – we don’t want that. We want to go down there and win.
“I have removed Aberdeen from my thoughts for now. I’ve done all my thinking on where my future lies. After that, it was a case of focusing on my football here at Inverness and enjoying the end of my career here.
“I’ve had a great seven years and some massive achievements at the club and I want to go out with an even bigger one by getting to the cup final.
“The perfect scenario would be to cement Europe and go into the cup final with that already secure. Whether that works out, we’ll wait and see but I’d love to win this cup.
“It would be a massive achievement for the club and my first big trophy as well. I’d love to do it.”
Shinnie watched on as St Johnstone defeated Dundee United 2-0 in the final of last year’s competition.
The defender believes there is no reason why Inverness cannot aim to do the same, if they can defeat the Parkhead club tomorrow.
Shinnie added: “The club needs to progress and achieve new things. For the last two seasons, we’ve been on the verge of Europe and reached the League Cup final last season.
“It seems over the last couple of years we’ve not failed at what we’ve done, but not gone that final step. Europe is a massive thing for us this season and we’re in a strong position.
“Watching St Johnstone last season win it gave us belief we could do the same. We’re similar, in many ways, to St Johnstone budget-wise and not having massive squads.
“The team spirit at both clubs seems really high. Watching them do it last season had me saying we should go and do the same.”