Underdog tag buoyed Stenny for Dens upset
IT so often happens, that being written off is all the motivation needed for any side planning a cup shock against the odds.
Stenhousemuir certainly proved the point as they defied their role as underdogs against Dundee — and booked their place in the semifinal of the Ramsdens Cup with a sudden death penalty shootout success after the sides were locked at 11.
And to add injury to insult, the man who ensured the game went to spot kicks was former Dens Park striker Sean Higgins. John Gemmell, one of Stenhousemuir’s heroes, revealed how talk of Dundee already being assured of a place in the final spurred the League One side on, insisting: ‘It wasn’t a shock result. We saw things on the internet where people were asking where the final will be played if Dundee are playing Rangers and things like that.
‘That kind of stuff is brilliant for us; nobody expected us to come to Dundee and get a result. I don’t know what price we were at the bookies, but we knew we would win.
‘We worked hard and earned the result we deserved. It was just like last season when we won at Kilmarnock i n the League Cup and should have beaten Inverness when they beat us on penalties.
‘I thought against Dundee we were the better team and we sat in when we needed to and deserved our win.’
It had looked as if it might go to the predicted script when Peter MacDonald gave the hosts an early secondhalf lead from the penalty spot — but Higgins levelled with a wonder goal in 63 minutes to eventually allow substitute Sean Lynch to convert the decisive penalty in their 54 spotkick triumph.
Added Gemmell: ‘ We have boys in our team such as David Rowson who played at the top level for years. He’s the fittest boy in our team and is about 39yearsold.
‘There’s not much of a gulf between League One and the higher levels as we have plenty of boys who are capable of stepping up to the next level or play in the Premier League.
‘We may be parttime but we’re still one of the fittest teams in the country. There were no concerns on that score when the game moved into extratime.’
And he had special praise for Chris Smith, whose penalty saves won the game, the keeper even scoring himself with his own spoton effort.
‘Chris Smith showed just how good a goalkeeper his is with his saves,’ he added. ‘He even took a penalty himself, which says it all.’
Gemmell i s now l ooking forward to a special day come the semifinal, saying: ‘ I’ve been in the game for 13 years and I’ve only won one promotion. This semifinal will be the biggest game of a lot of our careers and I don’t care who it’s against.
‘We would probably want Annan rather than Rangers, just on a psychological level. But we have come to Dundee and won, so we won’t fear anyone.’
Dundee striker MacDonald, meantime, dismissed any talk of underestimating their opponents. ‘We didn’t take Stenny lightly,’ he said. ‘The gaffer would never allow us to do that and neither would we as players.
‘Now we just have to make sure we bounce back next week in the league against Hamilton, which is a huge game for us.’