Danny Armstrong watched his old pal Dean Campbell make FA Cup headlines and found himself thinking ‘I fancy a bit of that’.
Armstrong and Kilmarnock will get their moment in the spotlight tomorrow as they take on Celtic at Hampden for a place in the Viaplay Cup Final. A tall order, no doubt, but not an impossible one.
Former Killie loanee Campbell, now at EFL League Two’s Stevenage, struck a dramatic winner last weekend to embarrass Aston Villa at Lamex Stadium; a moment Armstrong confessed he’d so dearly love to replicate at the national stadium.
“Imagine that happening!” the winger said with a smile. “I’d love nothing more. Hopefully I can do something similar. He was a good lad, Dean. I spent a lot of time training with him. I watched him the other night and I was delighted for him.
“It just shows you that anything can happen. Stevenage knocked out Aston Villa and he’s scored the winner. So, you never know.
“I watched the goal back and the kind of lad Dean is, I don’t think he believed it himself when he scored. But it’s brilliant for him. He came here last season and now he’s trying something different down in England and he’s gone and knocked Aston Villa out of the FA Cup.”
Few gave Stevenage a prayer against Unai Emery’s Premier League side, and it’s a similar scenario for Kilmarnock as they attempt to topple the cup holders and reigning Premiership champions. Armstrong, however, maintains no one at Rugby Park will head for Glasgow in fear.
“It’s a one-off game and there is nobody here who is sitting scared of the game on Saturday,” he said. “There is nobody sitting here thinking we will just go and play the game and get it over with. Nobody is thinking like that at all.
“The boys are raring to go. It means everything and everyone has been buzzing this week. We are all looking forward to the game.
“Playing at Hampden a great opportunity for everyone including myself. It’s always been a dream of mine to play in a national semi final or final. It’s one I am really looking forward to and hopefully I can produce on the day.”
Saturday promises to be rather different to Armstrong’s last visit to Hampden; a 3-0 victory playing for Raith Rovers against Queen’s Park in front of… 679 people. That was almost five years ago, and in that time Kilmarnock’s absence from these occasions has stretched beyond a decade. Residing in the town, the 25-year-old knows better than most what victory would mean.
“I live in Kilmarnock now and when I am out and about I see all the fans,” he said. “They are warm to me. They are brilliant with me. They always talk to me and send me messages. To do them proud would be brilliant.
“They make it clear, they are not shy in telling you how important this game is. To get to the club’s first semi final in 10 years is massive but you don’t want to stop at the semi. You want to get to the final. Last season we were in the Championship and missing the Premiership and the chance of going far in the cups.
“It shows how far the club has come in the last year or so. These are the games we all want to be playing in and these are the occasions this club should be involved in and that the fans should be experiencing.”
