Ian McShane offers Celtic upset blueprint to Darvel teammates as he reveals 'take the game to Aberdeen' cup plan

The midfielder enjoyed some big upsets at Hampden against Hibs and the Hoops during his time at Ross County.

Ian McShane has already shown with Ross County that he can be a triumphant underdog. And the Darvel ace says his team will play it their way as they bid to cause a momentous shock against Aberdeen.

McShane helped County to their first-ever major honour seven years ago when lifting the League Cup at Hampden. If that Staggies success was merely a surprise, a victory for the West of Scotland League outfit over the Dons would represent something stunning. McShane knows the size of the challenge against the Premiership outfit, but the 30-year-old is relishing the rare chance to be an underdog again in Monday’s tie.

He said: “Obviously, winning that League Cup with Ross County is my highlight in the cups and it’s similar in some ways in the fact we were not expected to do it because we had beat Celtic in the semi-final and then Hibs in the Final. Bits of luck went our way on those days that you needed and that pushed things in our favour. Hopefully, it’ll be the same on Monday.

“It’s a little bit of a free-hit for us in the sense we are not expected to win. We are always favourites going into every game at the moment and you get teams sitting in against you and we’re expected to take the game to them.

“We were underdogs at Montrose and that took the shackles off us a bit. We went and played our own game and came out on top. That’ll help.

“We are on a good run just now. We know it is going to be very tough and we will need a lot of luck. Maybe a few decisions from the referee and stuff like that to go our way because it will be difficult.

“But we’ll go into it with confidence, try to play our style of game and see how far we can go in the game with that. Take the game to Aberdeen and see what happens.”

Mick Kennedy’s free-scoring team have threats and smashed five past League One Montrose at Links Park to book the Dons date. McShane, who had spells at St Mirren and Falkirk before joining Darvel two and a half years ago, believes his team could deliver regular results at that level.

He said: “We have a very experienced squad and a lot of the boys have played high up the leagues in this country. That’ll stand us in good stead because it means we are not going to be overawed by the occasions or who we are playing against.

“Aberdeen at their level for a reason, so, of course, it’s going to be difficult for us, but the experience will definitely help us. I would say that, if we were playing in League One, we could compete.

“The Montrose tie was obviously just a one-off game, but we went there and we were comfortable and beat them quite convincingly. Over a season, I think we could compete at that level with the boys in our dressing room no bother.

“We’ve had that good result at Montrose in the cup, we are sitting at the top of our league, so, hopefully, we can just carry that on.”

Aberdeen are under huge pressure after a miserable week, but McShane said: “It’ll make no difference. They played well against Rangers at Hampden and had a man sent off.

"That maybe took a bit out of the legs for Wednesday against Hearts and 5-0 was not a fair reflection. They’ll come down with confidence they are going to beat us, so we’ll see how it goes.”

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