The last time that these sides met in the Scottish Cup was also in the Fourth round, in 2000, the round after Caley Thistle had earned their infamous "SuperCaley Go Ballistic..." headline by beating Celtic 3-1 at Parkhead. After scraping a 1-1 draw in Inverness, the Dons won 1-0 at Pittodrie to see them start a run all the way to the final, where rangers won after Rod Wallace caved in Jim Leighton's face.
Saturday's match will come just too soon for current injured goalkeeper David Preece, so Ryan Esson will start his seventh game in a row. While Ryan has only tasted victory in one of these games, in the previous round of the cup against Arbroath, he has only conceded 5 goals to opposition including Celtic, rangers, Hearts and CIS Cup finalists Motherwell, and only one of those could be said to be his fault. As Ryan is in possession of the jersey, the debatably no better Preece may have trouble winning back his place. Jimmy Calderwood said today: "The ball is in Ryan's court. It is up to him to prove he deserves to keep his place in the team."
Ticket sales have been steady but not spectacular leading up to Saturday's big game, so hopefully Dons fans will dig deep and come out to back the team, as this could be a season-defining encounter.