John McGlynn is allowing himself to dream of replicating Raith Rovers’ Coca-Cola Cup-winning icons after dumping Aberdeen out of the Premier Sports Cup.
Rovers turned in a sensational showing against the in-form Reds, with goals from Ethon Varian and Dario Zanatta cancelling out Jay Emmanuel-Thomas’ opener in Kirkcaldy.
The memorable victory was played out to a raucous atmosphere at Stark’s Park, roaring Raith into the quarter-finals of this competition for the first time since 1994.
On that occasion, Jimmy Nicholl’s Lang Toun legends went all the way, defeating Celtic in the final to lift the trophy.
McGlynn may have had his tongue in cheek when he suggested history could repeat itself.
He was also speaking prior to Rovers being handed an onerous, albeit money-spinning, trip to face Celtic in the quarter final.
“We’re in the quarter-finals and I’ve been told it’s for the first time since 1994 — so I’m delighted about that,” said the Rovers boss.
“The only unfortunate thing is: that is when Raith Rovers won it.
“To try to equal that puts enormous pressure on us — but I’ll take it!”
Raucous Rovers
McGlynn reckons the win was a fitting reward for the Raith fans who were locked out of the 2020/21 campaign, missing some sumptuous football and a run to the Championship playoffs.
“It was great for the players, and the fans, because we put in a number of great performances here last season — had a number of great results — and there was no-one here to see it,” McGlynn continued.
“On Sunday, we got another one of those performances and results.
“I’m so delighted that our fans were here to witness it.”
.@RaithRovers pull off the upset! 😱
Aberdeen go crashing out of the #PremierSportsCup and John McGlynn's side are into the quarter finals 👏 pic.twitter.com/L5MtWcxwga
— Premier Sports 📺 (@PremierSportsTV) August 15, 2021
As well as emerging as the match-winner, Zanatta turned in a sensational showing, tormenting Jack Gurr and creating a host of passable opportunities.
While there was not a single failure in the Rovers side, Zanatta, Christophe Berra, Kyle Benedictus and Dylan Tait were magnificent.
McGlynn added: “Dario’s been doing really well and in the first part of the second half, he was causing Aberdeen a lot of problems.”
