Michael aims to be a different kind of hero this time
Michael Doyle has a burning ambition to grab the goal that makes it third-time lucky against Aberdeen.
The Queen of the South defender admits he’s probably best known as the footballer who rescued holidaymakers from a hotel fire in Majorca. Now he’d rather be famous for helping his club knock the Dons out of the Scottish Cup at Pittodrie this afternoon. Doyle has faced the Premiership club twice before in cup competitions.
On both occasions, his team came agonisingly close to creating an upset.
He said: “I’ve played Aberdeen twice in the League Cup and that’s where I don’t have a good record.
“Six years ago I waswith Alloa and we held them at 0-0 for 120 minutes
“Alloa were in the Second Division at the time, so to do that to arguably the secondbest team in Scotland, and go to penalties, was a kind of moral victory.
“We lost the shoot-out and were gutted not to go through.
“Then with Morton I got to the semi-final at Hampden, which was a brilliant experience. “We held them for 70 minutes, but we didn’t take our chances.
“I’m hoping it’s third-time lucky in the Cup against Aberdeen.
“I don’t think the gap is as big as people think. “There are teams in the Championship who can be under-estimated.
“Everyone works really hard and we caught Dundee by surprise in the last round by pressing really high. That’s where we got our goals.” The 27-year-old had an eventful holiday after leaving Morton at the end of last season.
He was hailed as a hero after fighting back flames before pulling two people to safety from a Magaluf apartment. “The summer was a bit strange – that was my 15 minutes of fame,” he went on. “It was just my natural instinct. I don’t know why I ran into the fire, I just did it.
“I just wanted to get those young boys out. There were no firemen in sight.
“It was me and a guy from the bar who was putting it out and dragging people out.
“I also had to get my pal out. He came in because he thought I was still in there.
“I’ll need to do something big in football, so when people Google my name, that’s not the first thing that comes up!
“I’ll need to score a hat-trick or a last-minute winner at Aberdeen on Sunday to change that.
“It wasn’t until I got home that I thought to myself: ‘What were you doing?’”
The Doonhamers biggest threat to the Dons comes in the shape of 37-goal Stephen Dobbie.
Michael maintains the striker doesn’t get any favours in training just because he’s so important to the team.
He said: “I know if I can play against Dobbie, there won’t be many better to face in games.
“If you give him a yard in training, he sticks it in the back of the net. But I still kick him to let him know I’m there! We all train at 100%.”