There is still a final to be decided of course as well as the difficult business of attempting to get the better of a Celtic side that has got its swagger back.

But all that’s for another day.

Last night Derek McInnes must have made his way home from Hampden feeling all the elation of a man who had just secured his second piece of silverware as Aberdeen manager.

He hasn’t. And the chances are he won’t either when he takes his team up against the holders who are superior in just about every department.

It will take an almighty effort and a great deal of luck if the Pittodrie side are to loosen Celtic’s stranglehold on the complete set of Scottish football’s most sought-after prizes.

But for McInnes on a personal level this victory over Rangers may go down as one of his sweetest wins.

Derided by sections of his club’s own fans and even deserted by thousands of them for yesterday’s showdown, McInnes proved he really does win big matches and his team is truly worthy of the backing of its support.

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Tactically he managed to out-manoeuvre Steven Gerrard even though the Rangers boss may still be wondering how his team failed to make the most of their superiority at the National Stadium.

McInnes put together a plan to nullify the threat coming down the flanks from Daniel Candeias and Ryan Kent and although both the Rangers wingers looked dangerous at times, never once did they find a way to cut through the red wall that the manager had put in place.

That keeper Joe Lewis did not have a single save of note to make is evidence that the game plan worked to perfection.

Aberdeen hung on for long spells just as they had done in the previous round at Easter Road but when the moment arrived it was Lewis Ferguson – son of Derek and nephew of Barry – who powered home the only goal of the game and brought the curtain crashing down on semi-final Sunday.

And just when it seemed this day of drama might all be headed for an inevitable end.

Brendan Rodgers versus Gerrard for the first silverware of the Scottish season. That’s what it looked like the more Rangers went banging on Aberdeen’s door. But it was the resilience of McInnes’s men that has now set them up for another tilt at Rodgers and Celtic.

The bad news for Aberdeen and their manager is the champions continue to show signs that their recovery is nearing completion.

Yes, Hearts walked round the corner to Murrayfield yesterday feeling good about their chances of causing an upset and stopping Rodgers and his relentless trophy sweep in its tracks

But neither fate nor good fortune made the short trip with them.

Dreams undone by a dodgy Willie Collum penalty – is there any other kind? – as well as the timely return of Rodgers’s managerial Midas touch. Whether or not he was forced into throwing on Scott Sinclair and Ryan Christie from the bench is almost irrelevant.

That these two subs became Celtic’s matchwinners is a sign that Rodgers is also getting back to his A game. This was the tie that was supposed to test him and his team.

But Celtic breezed through it without encountering any real resistance. As a result, the first Betfred Cup business of the day became something of a non-event long before the end.

And that’s the problem for McInnes and Aberdeen. It’s ominous enough that Celtic are getting back into their stride but when Rodgers is making match-turning contributions from the sidelines then they tend to look invincible.

Certainly they had way too much for Hearts yesterday at the home of the SRU. They like a bit of rough and tumble in this part of the capital but even by rugby’s standards they were dropping like flies.

Hearts were already minus John Souttar and Christophe Berra but the real hammer blow came just six minutes in when talismanic skipper Steven Naismith pulled up for no apparent reason, having felt something twang in his right knee joint.

The Scotland striker – arguably the most impressive player in the country so far this season – tried to hobble on but the look on his face painted a picture of a man who knew his race was run. Having had a history of these kind of painful issues, the concern was obvious but Naismith was afforded no sympathy from the Celtic supporters who goaded him mercilessly when he went down for a second time, signalling the end of his afternoon.

Celtic's James Forrest doubles the lead for his side

It is to be hoped that Naismith will not be laid up for too long with this latest episode as his resurgence as an attacking force has been one of the stories of the season so far.

Certainly, the moment he handed the armband to Steven MacLean was the moment Hearts must have begun to fear the worst. There would be no recovering from this setback even though Celtic were also limping into difficulties.

Already without key men Scott Brown, Dedryck Boyata and Leigh Griffiths, Rodgers had to recalibrate his strategy again when Eboue Kouassi landed awkwardly. He was replaced by Sinclair and this was to become a match-winning move by Rodgers who also swapped Olivier Ntcham with Christie at half time.

These were crucial calls and now McInnes will have to come up with something special of his own if he is to finish the job he started yesterday.

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