Young fit for cup effort

"We will have to catch them on an off day and play at our peak ourselves. Hopefully the right Dunfermline will turn up."

Darren Young was worried after the Falkirk match last Saturday that his knee injury might have ruled him out of this weekend's final. He missed the CIS Insurance Cup Final last season with a broken meta tarsal and he described it as "a bit of a nightmare to miss two in a row." The injury has not reacted as badly as everyone feared and he hopes to be available should Stephen Kenny select him. He should not have the same problems as last time when he tried everything to play through the injury:-

"It wasn't that bad, after X rays I was told that it might take four to six weeks to heal. That was four weeks until the cup final so I knew it was going to be touch and go.  Three days before it I got a jag off the doc that number my foot to see if I could play through it. It was fine the first 30 - 40 minutes, running about like a wee school kid thinking this is fine - I am going to make it but then I just felt it.  That was it, I just walked off and knew it was over."

Along with Stevie Crawford, Darren is one of only two survivors of the 2004 Pars cup final side still at East End Park who have a realistic chance of playing at Hampden, he recalls:-

"It is a great experience, that is three times we have got to a cup final in the last four years. Outwith the Old Firm it takes a bit of luck to get to a cup final when you are playing for a lesser team.  You have to make the most of it and I am looking forward to it.

"You know that you are going out there in front of 50 to 60,000, it is a once in a lifetime experience, if you win the cup you become legends even though we have been relegated. That is the irony of it."

The disappointment of the SPL has not dwelt long on the Dunfermline players, Stephen Kenny organised a behind doors friendly last Tuesday for the players who had not been playing in the first team. Those on the fringe, of which Darren counts himself of one of them, hope that they have done enough to be handed a place in the starting line up. The record thus far in the competition gives Darren the belief that victory over Celtic is possible:-

"Apart from the Partick game we have not been favourites in any of the games we have played - Rangers, Hearts, Hibs. In the space of two weeks we played then three times, we didn't concede a goal, we took three points off them and knocked them out of the cup but John Collins was still going on that they were the better team."

Stephen Kenny has had a profound effect on the way Dunfermline play wanting to see the ball at feet and passed around rather than pursuing the long ball.  Darren highlighted the other attribute that Kenny appears to come up with - the winning formula that takes his side through cup ties:-

"He's got his tactics spot on for every cup game so far. There's not much point in going to a cup final and trying to defend for the whole game and trying to get a lucky goal. I think he will go for it. He's won two cup finals this season with Derry City so we'll see. He's brought in two wingers, which is unusual in Scottish football these days, and Adam Hammill and Jim have done brilliant for us. We've been trying to get the ball down and pass it whereas earlier in the season we were maybe trying to just knock it up to big Jim Hamilton."

Celtic winning the SPL is hopefully to Dunfermline's advantage claimed the 28 year old former Dons captain:-

"They have been playing meaningless games in the league but it is the same for them 50 - 60,000; it's a cup final and I am pretty sure that they will be up for it.  We will have to catch them on an off day and play at our peak ourselves."

The last meeting in the Scottish Cup final was looking good for Dunfermline, one up ten minutes into the second half but then Bobo Balde handled the ball, no penalty was given and Celtic scored:-

"Every time I see the incident on TV it annoys me," Young said. "Balde could have been sent off and Celtic down to ten men, the referee never saw it. We could have been 2-0 up, but 30 seconds later they went up the pitch and it is 1-1. You could see our heads go down then. We held on for a while, but Larsson scored a great second goal and it was all over. Hopefully, this is third time lucky in a final against Celtic."