Ian: i’d count it as up with best
IAN McSHANE reckons Darvel’s Scottish Cup stunner over Aberdeen rates alongside his League Cup success with Ross County.
But the focused midfielder is adamant the adventure is not over with ambitions now on flattening Falkirk to reach the last eight.
McShane told Record Sport last weekend he believed the Dons could be downed and was proved spot on.
Having helped County win their first-ever major honour seven years ago at Hampden when beating Hibs in the League Cup Final, the 30-year-old has savoured huge highs in the game.
But McShane said: “This is right up there. The feeling is unbelievable. We did it and we were outstanding.
“We deserved it on the night. You think you’ve got a wee chance but then some think it’s impossible to get a result.
“I can’t believe what’s happened, fair play to the boys, it was outstanding.” As an entire club, Darvel made it happen. Chairman John Gall refused suggestions to take the tie to Rugby Park and undertook the developments at Recreation Park to stage the game on home soil with the community. Falkirk will be next to
sample the surroundings and McShane said: “We wanted to have the game here. We didn’t want to go to Killie as it would have suited Aberdeen more.
“We have got the park ready for games like this.
“It’s brilliant from John (Gall) and the committee, everything since I’ve been here has been spot on.
“The money John has put in to make sure we’ve got everything we need is fantastic. We’ll need to keep the stands up. That game could be another sell-out and who knows, maybe it’ll be on TV. We beat Aberdeen so we need to believe we can beat Falkirk too.”
Manager Mick Kennedy was adamant Darvel would play the game their way against Premiership opposition and his troops perfectly carried out the order.
McShane said: “We aren’t the kind of team to sit back, we saw the game out well but that’s not usually our style.
“We like to be on the front foot, we thought we may as well approach it like that as it was a free hit.”
Darvel excelled on the big TV occasion and McShane added: “I don’t think the cameras had any part to play, you don’t even notice that on the park. The players in the away dressing room are at Aberdeen for a reason, they have got real quality.
“So we knew if we switched off even for a moment they’d punish us but the lads kept it going for 90 minutes.”