Motherwell's Allan Campbell can't wait to get tore into Celtic in Scottish Cup final
Scotland under-21 international Campbell (19) and his ‘Well mates are bidding to bring the famous cup home to Fir Park for the first time since 1991 but face a formidable challenge against a team going for a second consecutive domestic treble.
Campbell, who has been at Motherwell since the age of nine, said: “If the manager picks me I’ve got to make sure that I go into that game giving everything.
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Hide Ad“I’ll relish the battle against Scott Brown (Celtic captain).
“I’m not going to hold back on anything. I’m going to give my all. It’s a one off game so anything can happen.
“We’ll prepare the way we’ve been preparing all year.
“The manager will have us ready and organised and I’m sure whoever’s in that starting line-up on Saturday will go out and do the fans and everybody proud.
“Hopefully we get the win.”
Despite his tender age, Campbell has been well aware of Motherwell’s unforgettable 4-3 final win over Dundee United in 1991 for several years.
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Hide Ad“When I first came here the first two years we went to college,” Campbell said.
“Jim Griffin (1991 Scottish Cup winner) was the guy that took it. You would always ask him questions about the cup win and he told us that it felt amazing. Hopefully I can get that feeling.”
Motherwell go into Saturday’s final on a high after comfortably beating local rivals Hamilton Accies 3-0 in their final Scottish Premiership fixture of the season at Fir Park on Saturday.
This sealed a seventh place league finish in a fine season for the men in claret and amber which has also seen them finish as Betfred Cup runners-up.
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Hide AdCampbell added: “I was itching to get on against Accies because it was the derby and you see the fans with the way they respond.
“But obviously the boys that came in did brilliant, they played absolutely amazing and it’s good to get that good feeling going into next week.
“We’ve finished seventh and that was the aim going into the split so that’s brilliant.
“We can all get together and focus for the week coming up.
“It wasn’t in my thoughts to get to two cup finals this season but it’s been brilliant.
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Hide Ad“I’d just like to thank the manager for giving me the chance and obviously the team this year.
“It’s a great bunch of boys and it’s been great for me playing, especially being young.
“There’s Carl McHugh in midfield and the boys behind me. Big Tom Aldred’s come in, Peter Hartley and Taity (Richard Tait) and they’ve been brilliant. They’ve made me kick on now.
“Las (Keith Lasley) too and the manager. It’s just made me push my game more and more.
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Hide Ad“I hope we can go next week and repay everybody and leave the fans with smiles on their faces and buzzing.”
Meanwhile, Motherwell manager Stephen Robinson said that the team’s displays since the league split have proved wrong the doubters who had stated that they’d go through the motions in the run up to the cup final.
“I think it shows the attitude of the players,” Robinson said.
“People said we’d just down tools when we had the cup final on our minds but we haven’t got that in the club. We don’t allow that.
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Hide Ad“Every penny that comes into the club will be put into the squad.
“To finish seventh, get to two cup finals and break the 20-game record of clean sheets has been a very, very good season but we could make it a really special one.”
No fewer than eight changes were made to Motherwell’s starting line-up against Accies, with only Tom Aldred, Richard Tait and Liam Grimshaw expected to be in contention to start against Celtic in Mount Florida.