Scott Robertson: Hampden owes me a win

Nov 16 2008 By Gordon Waddell

SCOTT ROBERTSON has experienced the weird and the woeful at Hampden - now he wants to add one night of wonder to his list.

The Dundee United ace booked his side a night at the national stadium with a player-of-the-round display in the Cooperative Insurance Cup quarter-final against Dunfermline.

His reward came in midweek when the Arabs were handed a January 28 semi showdown with Celtic. Now the 23-year-old midfielder has his sights set on some glory for himself - and a revenge mission for his team-mates.

Scott said: "I've played at Hampden twice. The first was with Peterhead against Queen's Park in the Third Division when I was on loan in 2004.

"The crowd must have been about 400 which was weird. You could hear every shout echoing around the place.

"Then I played there in the Scottish Cup semi with Dundee.

We lost 3-0 to Gretna so that wasn't exactly a great day.

"But this is a chance to play a big semi at Hampden and get to a final.

"I've never won against Celtic and it has been more than nine years since United have beaten them. So there has never been a better time to do it.

"And with the way the draw has worked out it's may be even a chance for a repeat of last year's final against Rangers."

Summer signing Robertson missed out on that particular heartache, the Arabs twice coughing up a lead to Kris Boyd before going down on penalties But he has heard enough about it to know what revenge would mean.

And he got a hint of the hurt at Ibrox recently when United saw a 3-2 lead nicked from them in injury time.

The former Dundee kid said: "I wasn't at Tannadice last season but watched the final and know how gutted everyone was.

"Now we want to win it to make up for that.

"It would be nice to do it against Rangers especially after the last result at Ibrox.

"It was sickening. It felt like a defeat because we had played so well. felt deflated but in hindsight took a huge boost from the performance at Ibrox.

He said: "Games like that do my confidence the world of good. You're playing against a high calibre of player. Pedro Mendes and Barry Ferguson are Premiership-class.

"You want to show not only that you can cope against these guys but also that you're good

"It was like we weren't destined to beat them." Robertson may have enough to get the better of them on occasions.

"Before coming to Tannadice I didn't have to deal with that week in week out.

"I did play Celtic in the cup when I was at Dundee and we were unlucky. We hit the bar twice and hit the post.

"I coped well that night but didn't stand out as much as I would have liked although I was asked to take on more of a defensive role."

Now he's playing his heart out across the road - but Scott felt for Alex Rae when he was axed at Dens last month.

He said: "I worked with Alex for two years and he showed a lot of faith in me so it was sad.

"He had his hands tied in terms of finance and struggled to replace players."