JUST six months ago the notion that Sam Cosgrove would be regarded as a key player for Aberdeen on the biggest occasions would have been regarded as preposterous.
The 21-year-old arrived without much in the way of fanfare from English League Two side Carlisle United in January last year, having harvested a solitary goal from 12 appearances for the perennial
fourth-tier strugglers.
He was then ordered off on his debut for the Pittodrie club after a studs-up challenge on Celtic captain Scott Brown just eight minutes after coming on for Stevie May.
Cosgrove failed to find the net in his first 16 outings for Derek McInnes’ side, by which time he was being compared unfavourably to his predecessor, Jayden Stockley, who has since moved to the English
Championship side Preston North End.
However, since breaking his duck against St Mirren in October, he has scored 20 times in 28 games and former Celtic, Aberdeen and
Scotland midfielder Paul Hartley believes he is the man who can do more than anyone else to put a spoke in the wheels of Celtic’s triple treble tilt.
“This time last year most people thought that he wasn’t going to cut the mustard because, at that time, he couldn’t buy a goal,” Hartley
said. “But he was still a young kid when he came from Carlisle United and he had to adjust to the Scottish game.
“This season he’s shown he’s
more than a handful by scoring all types of goals. He’s been really impressive.
“People talk about the physical presence of Uche Ikpeazu but Cosgrove has that as well, plus he has height and pace. He also has a good first touch and links up well with his team-mates but the most important factor is that he knows where the goals are.
“The hardest job in football is
scoring goals and I’m sure he’ll be the main threat for Aberdeen, who are a younger team this season.”
For years Aberdeen had been branded big-game bottlers and their supporters had grown tired of the long journey back to the north-east following another disappointment in Glasgow but McInnes appears to have solved the problems they faced at the three biggest grounds in the country.
“I think they have a great opport-unity,” said Hartley. “Derek will look at how they comfortably disposed of Rangers at Ibrox in the quarter-finals. Most people probably thought their chance had gone when
they drew the first game at
Pittodrie but they’ve shown they’re more than a match for Rangers and Celtic.
“They beat Celtic at Parkhead at the end of last season and got a draw there a few weeks ago. They’ve also beaten Rangers three times in
Glasgow this season so Sunday’s game won’t faze the manager or the players.
“On top of that, they’ve become accustomed to playing at Hampden over the last few seasons, even if they haven’t cleared the final hurdle against Celtic.
“Obviously, Aberdeen will be
missing a key player in Graeme
Shinnie but they still have enough quality to make them believe they can win.
“Celtic haven’t been firing on all cylinders but they’re accustomed to coming to the national stadium and winning.”
Hartley, who won the Scottish Cup with Hearts in 2006 and Celtic in 2007, though, contends that the fact the game is in Glasgow will work in Aberdeen’s favour.
“Their main problem has been their home form,” he said. “They’ve won just two out of nine at Pittodrie this year and one of them was against Queen of the South.
“For some reason they seem to play better away from home so they’ll come to Glasgow knowing that their away form is excellent – nine wins and a draw in their last 11. So they’ll know that they can put on a good show against Celtic.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here