Scott is a cup winner
Wednesday, 23rd May 2007Back after the break, Scott Morrison would love to make up for lost time by playing at Hampden again.
Scott Morrison is 23 today and he is hopeful that his celebrations can continue on Saturday as a Scottish Cup winner. He recalls his first success in a Cup Final victory over Celtic. That was back in 2001 when Aberdeen lifted the Youth Cup as Drew Jarvie's side won 2-0 courtesy of first half goals from Fergus Tiernan and Scott Michie. That was far from the big time atmosphere of a Scottish Cup Final but at least if he is in the winning team this weekend he won't need to go to school the next day!
The 16 year old played in front of just 2228 at Hampden that May night but he is desperate to take the centre stage in a Scottish Cup Final to banish the blues of relegation.
"The cup is such a big occasion, I don't think relegation will be too big an effect. It was hard getting relegated. Everyone was so down, the feeling in the camp was quite low, the boys were quite gutted. But they knew Falkirk was a big game for the fans, a local derby after getting relegated. The boys went out with cup final places to be played for but it just didn't happen."
Scott has not started a game, and has not even been on the bench, since the 1-0 win over Hibs in the SPL at East End Park on 7th April. The Aberdonian explained how the Manager ended up overlooking him:-
"He made changes for the cup game. He is not afraid to make changes, he goes with what his gut feeling is for the game. He has not named the team yet and everyone is wanting to get a starting place because its a cup final. They are up for grabs."
The former Aberdeen player who joined the Pars in June 2005 is nearing the end of his two year contract but has great respect for the Manager who arrived in November and would love to be at East End Park as the Kenny era unfolds:-
"He is quite a quiet spoken man but he is very thorough and what he says is spot on. His track record is good and all the boys were confident that we were going to pull it off and stay up but it wasn't to be. In saying that even though we didn't manage to stay up the number of games that we have won in the last couple of months is pretty impressive. It was just a bit late. Coming in with the season half way through was tough for him but he is looking forward to next season and getting the boys pre season. I think he will be able to stamp his authority on the club even more.
"He is very organised and gets everyone motivated. He brings the best out of boys as you have seen over the last couple of months, he manages to make players play well. He fills you with confidence and tries not to put too much pressure on you so that you can just go out and play."
Stephen Kenny didn't take over in earnest until after the win over Dundee United on 18th November and it took until the Scottish Cup tie against Rangers on the first Sunday of the year for the new Manager to get a win. That was the start of the famous cup run and Scott thought that the Scottish Cup gave the team a chance to play without the pressures on points:-
"Once we got that first win, then the second one against Hearts we went on from there. He got us believing in ourselves and we did believe that we could stay up."
That in the end did not happen so now no doubt the Manager's task will be to instil confidence in his players that they can beat Celtic on Saturday.
"In the semi final St Johnstone played them at Hampden and did really well. We are going to be going in as underdogs; the pressure will be on them. Everyone is just going to go and enjoy the occasion. We feel we have a chance; it is going to be really hard but after the way that we have been playing we feel we have a chance."
As life in the First Division approaches the reality of the situation will descend soon after the final, could it be the last time many of these players will wear the black and white? Scott was unable to give any assurances:-
"We have no idea. We feel that we have done well recently. Everyone sees that there is a good team there. We are confident that we can bounce back up, at a time like this you want to keep all the best players that you have.
"You just never know if it going to be your own last cup final, you might only ever get the chance to play one cup final in your career. Everyone is going into the game believing that we can write a bit of history for ourselves. We don't mind if the talk is about Lennon or Celtic, we know what we have got to do."
Scott's Dunfermline career was curtailed after just three appearances when a knee ligament injury sustained in Austria while playing for Scotland's U21s put him out for the remainder of the 2005-06 season. Successful surgery was undertaken by the renowned specialist Dr Steadman in Colorado who has an impressive record of saving players careers. Fifteen starts this season means that Scott Morrison has all that behind him he added:-
"I am glad to be back playing after such a long time out. These are the kind of occasions that you look forward to when you are injured."
His recent omission for Stephen Kenny's team means Scott's concentration has moved from just his fitness. Performance is a measure and the young left sided player now has to convince himself and his Manager that he is the player that he was before.
"There is no reason why you cannot get back up to that standard. I want to push on and make up for lost time."
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