Niall’s first goal under Derek McInnes was in the third minute of the game v Kilmarnock, on April 27th 2013, in a 1-0 win. His goal on Tuesday night was the 450th goal scored by the club under the current management team and Niall’s 75th for AFC, and also came in the third minute!

“In my time here, I’ve came to Ibrox a couple of times and we’ve won, including earlier in the season, but it is the one ground in the Premiership that I have not scored at. Coming off the back of a replay and not getting the job done at Pittodrie it was an uphill task for us, but we showed great maturity, experience and composure to come here to put on a performance like we did.

“We knew we’d have to defend in numbers at times and we knew we’d have to take our chances when they came along. We got off to a great start and I managed to read the pass and I’ve finished it well. On a personal note it’s great to score and more importantly we’re into the next round.

“Even in the last few years I don’t think there’s been that fear factor. We’ve obviously been very consistent in the league and finished second above Rangers. We’ve been very strong on the road and that’s us unbeaten in nine games on the road so to come here and put on a performance like that is massive. We were able to see out the game after getting the two goal cushion and although they put on Defoe and Lafferty and threw everything at us, defensively we were very solid. From Stevie May right through to Joe Lewis we were excellent.

“Being at a big club like Aberdeen you enjoy getting to these semi-finals and finals and we want to go that one step further. We lost the cup final in December and we have another opportunity to get to another final and there’s probably no bigger task than beating Celtic. We’ll worry about that when it comes around and we need to get back to winning ways in the league. We’ll dust ourselves down nicely after a great result tonight and look forward to Saturday.

“For the young lads like Dean Campbell, Connor McLennan, Lewis Ferguson, Dom Ball and Max Lowe to come to that stage with a packed house in that atmosphere is a great learning curve for them. For us older lads to see that coming through Aberdeen can only be good for the club in the future. You need that depth and experience as well as that youthfulness coming through and night’s like Tuesday night they’ll always remember and take confidence from that.

“In semi-finals and finals anything can happen on the day. Looking back on the League Cup final we definitely had chances to win the game and we have to keep plugging away and working hard behind the scenes. We’ll worry about that when it comes around, but we feel we’re not too far away in the cup competitions and it’s about going out there defending well and taking our chances like we did at Ibrox. We’ll worry about the semi-final though when it comes along and look forward to the game on Saturday on the back of a great couple of performances on the road.”