IT was the moment Barrie McKay's life changed forever, an instant of time to be pored over in slow motion more frequently than the Zapruder footage. But don't tell the 21-year-old, nominated yesterday for the PFA Scotland young player of the year award, that his superlative solo goal in extra time of the Old Firm semi-final was a 'one hit wonder'.
Not only did the Rangers forward reveal last night that the strike had silenced the Twitter trolls who said he couldn't deliver on the big stage, but he also warned Celtic goalkeeper Craig Gordon that there is plenty more where that came from. Gordon had said in the game's immediate aftermath that McKay could strike the ball '100 times and not hit it as well'. McKay responded by sending in an equally unerring long-range strike three days later at Easter Road.
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"If he [Gordon] thinks it’s a one-off strike," said McKay, "well ... I’ve done it against Hibs and also earlier in my career against Alloa and against Hibs in the League Cup as well. It’s not as if it’s the first strike I’ve hit from outside the box. It’s just unfortunate that’s what he thinks.
"Before the game I was getting a wee bit on Twitter saying ‘you can’t perform on the big stage’ and whatever," he added. "I felt I proved the critics wrong. If anybody comes to me on Twitter I take it with a pinch of salt and laugh about it. I quite enjoy reading the abuse I get online – it is good comedy. I’ve had people telling me I should come off it or not to read it. But it shows you I must be doing something right if you if someone is taking the time of day to come for you.
"Surprisingly, since the goal, I’ve probably had less. I’ve even had Celtic fans saying ‘good goal – a shame it was against us’. But mainly it was people sending me my goal and I’d watch it, then the next tweet had another link to the goal and I’d watch it again. I must have watched it over 100 times that night, easy."
The PFA Scotland bow is fitting recognition for a player who would surely have been a stick-on if there was a 'most improved player' category. It is easy to forget that almost exactly two years ago, the same player was an accessory to a 10-2 defeat to Hamilton Accies whilst at parent club Morton. McKay admitted last night that he is still occasionally haunted by what happened to Kenny Shiels' already-relegated side that day.
“It was a low point," said McKay. "If you’re being honest you should never be beaten by ten goals but I think it was just one of those days. It does affect you but you can’t let it get you down too much because you still have more games to come. I was still just a young boy at the time, it was my second season of proper first team football in a higher league. Even now I still do think about that game and I guess it just makes you stronger.”
In terms of experience in the Scottish top division, the sum total McKay has under his belt thus far is a 16-minute substitute appearance at McDiarmid Park in May 2012. It is perfectly understandable then that he cannot wait to sample it again. “It will obviously be a special moment," he said. "I always believed we would come back and I always believed in my own ability that I would help them come back. But on that day you don’t really think about anything, I was just over the moon to make my debut for such a big club.”
How McKay, and Rangers, will fare when they return is already a source of some debate. Andrew Considine, the Aberdeen defender, said the Pittodrie side would still be Celtic's main competition in the Ladbrokes Premiership next season but McKay begs to differ. "It will be a hard league and we won’t be going up to be happy with just the top six, we are going up to challenge and we believe in ourselves," he said. "The way we’ve played - bar St Johnstone, when we were punished on the counter attack - we’ve done really well when we’ve played against Premier League opposition."
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So much for next season. Rangers still have this one to worry about. Since clinching the title and booking their cup final place, they have promptly gone three games without a win. McKay said he was puzzled by the sudden loss of form and said a combination of it and the 20-day lay-off between their last competitive match and the Scottish Cup final "could be difficult".
"We go into every game wanting to win and perform for the fans who are paying their money for the travel and tickets and we want to give them a performance worthy of that," he said. "Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to do that in our last couple of games. We have still been creating chances but just not burying them. We don’t have a game for three weeks and Hibs could have games all the way to the final so it could work both ways. Either the rest will do us good or the games will do them good."
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