Nicky Devlin urges Aberdeen to bring their second-half Parkhead performance to Hampden on Saturday.

The Dons head into the League Cup semi-final in style after beating Rangers in midweek to stay neck and neck with Celtic at the top of the Premiership and claim 15 wins and a draw under management of new boss Jimmy Thelin.

They now have the chance to move closer to silverware, and right-back Devlin cited the recent second-half comeback at Celtic Park where the Dons fought back from a 2-0 half-time scoreline to salvage a draw.

“We showed last time against Celtic that we can obviously score goals against them,” regrets the Scottish selection.

“We have to bring that performance in the second half against Celtic from the start because I think the first half against Celtic wasn’t great.

“We probably let them have too much of a foothold in the game. They scored a few goals, so we know we have to keep a little more pressure on defense against them.

“But we know we have goals within the team.

“To be honest, I think on Saturday, if we want to qualify, we’ll probably have to put in a 90-minute performance or 120, whatever it is.

“I don’t think we can probably be as poor in the first half as we were at Parkhead. Again, we need to be better at that.”