East Fife boss John Robertson will urge his players to believe in themselves when they run out at Pittodrie on Tuesday night.
The New Bayview manager feels they need an injection of confidence and a good performance against Aberdeen in the Scottish Communities League Cup would certainly provide that.
The Methil men still sit bottom of Division Two after drawing 1-1 at home to Brechin City on Saturday but Robertson was in an upbeat mood as he looked forward to the match against Craig Brown’s team.
“You need to be confident going into every game, not just big ones like this, and I have told my players to be positive,” he said.
“We may not be getting the results we want but we are not playing that badly.
“What we needed against Brechin on Saturday was a second goal to take the nervousness away.
“We have been creating loads of chances but need to be more clinical.
“There is not much wrong with us.
“I know Craig and he will be hurting that, like us, Aberdeen have not started the season as well as they would have liked.
“He has improved his squad over the summer, as have we, but results have not suggested that is the case.Incentive”So both teams have a great incentive to do well.”
Meanwhile, Dons defender Andrew Considine is hoping another cup thrashing of the Fifers will help Aberdeen’s strikers end their goal drought in the SPL.
Considine scored his first in two years and fellow stopper Youl Mawene got the other in the weekend draw with Kilmarnock.
Scott Vernon is the only striker at the club with a league goal, eight games into the new season.
Considine knows that’s simply not good enough and is looking for a repeat of January’s 6-0 Scottish Cup win against the Methil men.
He said: “Football is all about confidence and I believe 100% that we will get the right result against East Fife.
“We have to be on our toes for a battle but hopefully we can get a few goals against them to get some confidence up.
“Hopefully it will be the strikers who do it as we need them to score regularly again and it would be good to see the likes of Rory Fallon get his first for the club.
“The boys score for fun in training and I think we can take that into games but it’s up to us to prove that now.”
David Gonzalez will be back in goal after missing the draw against Killie to be at the birth of his son but that won’t be the only change.
Brown is without teenage midfielder Fraser Fyvie, who is on international duty with Scotland’s under-19s in Slovenia.
The Dons boss has warned his players to forget their easy victory against the Fifers earlier this year.
“I won’t give any thought to our last meeting but what I will take notice of is their victory over a strong Dunfermline team in the last round,” said Brown.
“They are more than capable of causing a shock.
“I know Robbo and (assistant boss) Gordon Durie very well as I had them in my Scotland team and I know how determined they will be that East Fife give us a real battle.
“I also had Robbo at Largs on the SFA coaching course and saw managerial qualities in him as he could certainly manage the dressing room when he played.”