Cooper goal triggered Elgin's Challenge Cup adventure
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THE man who started Elgin City’s march to the quarter-finals of the Tunnock’s Challenge Cup is dreaming of more glory.
Defender Matthew Cooper scored only his second goal in nearly 200 City appearances to grab a last-minute winner at Easter Road against Hibs Colts back in August.
Little did he know at the time but his rare strike was to trigger a run of superb away victories by the Black and Whites in the competition.
In the next round they won a nine-goal thriller at Brechin, earning a shot at Championship Dundee and a famous 2-1 success at Dens Park on a Sunday afternoon.
A superb 2-0 victory at Airdrie pushed City into the last eight where they will take on League 1 leaders Raith Rovers in Kirkcaldy tonight in front of the BBC Alba TV cameras.
As in previous rounds, Elgin are the underdogs but Cooper sees no reason why he can’t be part of another cup upset in the Kirkcaldy.
The former Caley Thistle defender would love nothing better than the chance to play in a national cup semi-final, and who knows, maybe a shot as his former Inverness employers.
“We have nothing to lose really. They are flying high in the league and same as the previous rounds, no-one is expecting us to take anything from the game,” he said. “At Dundee everyone thought they would walk all over us but that wasn’t the case. We’ve just got to go out there and try to do it again.
“Even the thought of being involved in a semi-final, that’s what the motivation is for all of the boys at the club.
“I don’t think there’s been any Elgin teams getting that far in national competitions before. We’ve got to make sure we are in the tie for the 90 minutes and you never know. We’ve got to give ourselves a chance in the game.
“We know if we do our job at the back stopping goals going in, Shane (Sutherland) and Kane (Hester) are always going to give us a chance of getting one at the other end.
Sutherland has netted in every round so far while Hester is the leading scorer in the competition with six goals.
Tonight’s game kicks off on the plastic Starks Park pitch at 7.45pm, and is screened live on the Gaelic language BBC Alba channel.
Cooper is no stranger to the glare of the live TV exposure. He played in Elgin’s Betfred Cup tie against Hibs at Borough Briggs earlier this season in front of the BT Sport cameras, and was also live on Welsh TV channel S4C when the Black and Whites lost 4-0 at The New Saints in the Challenge Cup in 2017.
“I’ve had a few games on the TV,” he said. “Everyone knows how it goes and I don’t think it will be too much of a distraction to the players. More so for the fans it will be good for us to show what we are all about.”
Cooper has fond memories of his first-round goal in the capital which kick-started Elgin’s cup run.
Hibs fielded a team including this week’s Scotland international call-up Ryan Porteous – who scored in the game – and pushed Elgin hard, but second-half sub Cooper popped up at the death to clinch a 4-3 win.
“It’s not often that happens, me scoring. It was a tough game down there against a good Hibs side that had a few first-team players.
“It was a good buzz to get a winner at Easter Road.
“Obviously with all the games being away from home, we’ve had tough tests in all of them and we’ve came through them so it has bonded the team well.
“Raith won’t take us lightly like some teams who may have seen us as a team in the lower league and thought it was an easy tie.”
