SCOTTISH CUP SPECIAL
All the games, all the goals...
The Road to Hampden
EVEN as Lawrence Shankland toiled to break through at Aberdeen, Mark Reynolds saw enough on the training pitch to suggest the young striker was destined for the very top.
Now reunited with the forward at Dundee United, Reynolds has watched Shankland blossom into a full international — one he believes Steve Clarke should give serious consideration to starting in the Euro 2020 play-off against Israel.
Today, Shankland has the chance to further raise his profile when the Championship leaders entertain Hibs in a televised tie. The defender can’t see Shankland, already on 25 goals for the season, becoming shot-shy in front of the cameras.
‘Lawrence is under pressure all the time, no matter what he does,’ observes Reynolds. ‘He’s scrutinised for everything. If he does well he’s great, if he doesn’t, people say it’s a step too far. That he’s not ready.
‘This is a Premiership team he’s playing against, potentially a marker, but I’d have absolutely no qualms about him playing for Scotland. He can only beat what’s put in front of him and he’s done that at every level he’s played so far.
‘It’s not as if he’d be going into the play-offs as an unknown quantity.’
Faced with a paucity of attacking options back in October, national coach Clarke took the rare step of dipping into Scotland’s second tier for the Euro 2020 qualifiers against Russia and San Marino.
After impressing as a half-time substitute in Moscow, Shankland scored on his first start a few nights later at Hampden.
‘When you’re there training with those guys, you get found out very quickly,’ adds Reynolds. ‘If you’re not up to it, not making the runs, not holding the ball up, the guys there will know and the manager will see it.
‘The boys I’ve spoken to have said he fitted right in and didn’t look out of place, which is high praise coming from some of them.’
Although he was always a fan,
Reynolds admits Shankland simply had to leave Pittodrie to fulfil his potential.
Reynolds was a Dons mainstay at the time Shankland found himself bashing his head against a glass ceiling through which he could see Adam Rooney hoovering up goals as the club’s most prolific striker in decades. ‘Shanks was good at Aberdeen. Very good. It’s not like he’s just appeared from nowhere,’ says Reynolds. ‘But he was a young boy. People forget, it was his first time living away from home. He’d always been with his mum and dad.
‘To go up there and not have anybody, to have to rely on yourself to do everything and try to compete in a strong Aberdeen team. That lifestyle change is hard.
‘He was trying to get Adam Rooney out of the team, the only Aberdeen striker to score 20 goals in three consecutive seasons.
‘He got in and out but he was never considered a real challenger to start games. But in training he was good. He was strong, he could finish — exactly what he’s doing here. He just wasn’t the main man.
‘I remember saying to a few of the boys when Aberdeen let him go: “I think that could be a decision we could regret, because he’s got everything”. But sometimes with guys like Shanks you need to let them go and either man up or chuck it.’
To his credit, Shankland opted for the former. While loan transfers to Dunfermline, St Mirren and Morton had furnished him with game-time, it was not until he left Aberdeen in 2017 that his career finally set upon a proper upward trajectory.
A short-term contract at Ayr United laid the foundations but something in the management of
Ian McCall lit a fire under his feet. Suddenly his numbers skyrocketed and he was the stand-out player in the club’s promotion from League One with 29 goals.
Year two he got 34 and, available on a free transfer last summer, United manager Robbie Neilson persuaded the club’s American owner Mark Ogren to put together a lucrative package that secured Shankland’s signature on a threeyear contract.
‘He’s proven to people that he can do it at every level he’s played at. And it’s not as if he’s just scoring goals. When you sit and watch him, there’s a lot more to his game than that.
‘Someone like Adam Rooney — and he probably won’t appreciate me saying this — was a finisher. There were games where Roons never touched the ball, but when you needed a goal he popped up.
‘A lot of strikers I’ve played with will rush their chances, but Shanks will create a wee gap then wait. He’s a very good finisher.’
A League Cup winner with Aberdeen in 2014, Reynolds also played as the Dons finished second to Celtic in all three domestic trophies in 2016-17.
With United well out in front at the top of the Championship and seemingly destined for promotion, Neilson’s team are brimful of confidence as they welcome Hibs.
Yet he remembers first-hand what happened on the day Jack Ross — today’s opposing manager — took St Mirren to Aberdeen in a similarly strong position.
‘St Mirren were going unbelievably well that season — it was the year they got promoted — and we beat them 4-1,’ recalls Reynolds.
‘So, while we have momentum, we have to remember that Hibs are the Premiership team. We’re the Championship contenders stepping up — but everybody’s got a realistic chance of winning the cups.’