Falkirk's Tam Scobbie will spend the rest of this week dreaming about more cup glory in Scottish League Cup final semi-final against Celtic on Sunday. The defender scored the opener in the Bairns' 2-0 Scottish Cup semi-final win over Dunfermline in 2009 with his first goal of the season. Unfortunately, Scobbie missed out on a winners medal as the Bairns were beaten 1-0 by Rangers in the final. The former Scotland Under-21 player returns to the national stadium with Steven Pressley's much-changed side who are now battling to gain promotion from the Irn-Bru First Division but his hopes remain the same. He said: "I'm 23 years old and I still lie in my bed at night dreaming about scoring winners in cup finals and semi-finals. You always dream about things like that, especially as a young kid and I did it. I managed to score off my shoulder against Dunfermline which was fantastic. It was great that my best mate Scotty (Arfield) scored afterwards and it set us up. We were struggling at that point in the league. We were almost getting relegated but we managed to stay up. You go into the game and hopefully put that (dream) into practice. If I pop up - or anyone pops up - with the winning goal then it will be fantastic." Local boy Scobbie is the only survivor from the 2009 final squad due, mostly, to the the financial restraints which have gripped the club and the Scottish game in general. This season Pressley has at his disposal a youthful squad which includes Craig Sibbald (16), Jay Fulton (17), Blair Alston (19) and Murray Wallace (19) but has taken them into second place in the league behind Ross County. The change in circumstances leads Scobbie to insist that making another Hampden final would eclipse the achievement of three years ago. The former Falkirk youth player said: "This will be the biggest. Cut-backs and things like that at the club were well documented at the start of the season. The funds haven't been available for the manager. He brought in the young boys like Craig Sibbald, Jay Fulton, Blair Alston and Murray Wallace. Apart from Darren Dods, who is over 30, everyone else is under 30 and so getting to this stage is a massive achievement, it has been exceptional. And that's one thing the gaffer really focuses on, he tells the young players that if they are good enough they will get an opportunity to play. That has always been the case here. I made my debut at 17 and that's what Falkirk need to do. They need to keep producing the players that we have been producing and it is on occasions like this that the young boys reap the rewards." Despite his relatively young age, Scobbie finds himself one of the most experienced players at the club and he urged the teenagers making their first appearance at Hampden to enjoy the experience. He went on: "It actually feels a bit weird to be one of the more experienced players - I'm only 23. If the boys want to speak to me then that's fine but they should go there relaxed and enjoy the day. It will be a great occasion. Sometimes you go through your career and you don't manage to play in a semi-final at Hampden so these young boys have to soak it all up, not just the day but the whole week and hopefully they do what they have been doing for the full season. At the end of it, if we work hard, we will get our just rewards."
Source: FOOTYMAD
