There are less than 7 miles between the Barrhead home of Arthurlie Juniors and Rangers’ home of Ibrox Stadium although the distance between the clubs in a footballing sense is much wider than that.
Albion Rovers striker Chris Dallas will complete the journey from the grass banks at Dunterlie to the brick stands in Govan this Sunday when the Coatbridge side play Rangers at the Quarter Final stage of the William Hill Scottish Cup.
Dallas at 26 years old could be described as a late developer in the game and he was snapped up by the Rovers after two seasons in the juniors. During his career he has never enjoyed a cup run of any great length and now he is getting himself ready to play in the Cliftonhill club’s biggest cup tie in 80 years.
“I joined Albion rovers last January after a six month stint at Arthurlie,” said Dallas before adding: “Prior to that I had been with East Kilbride Thistle so my footballing career has just been two and a half years in the juniors and just over a year in the senior ranks.”
“Our full back Barry Russell had been at East Kilbride as well but he left the season before I joined. However I bet there cannot be too many teams that have faced Rangers at Ibrox in the Quarter Finals of the Scottish Cup with two former EK Thistle players in their side.”
Dallas added: “I have enjoyed my time with the Rovers although it has seen some ups and downs. We were relegated from the Second Division last May but we are on a huge high just now with the run in the William Hill Scottish Cup.”
The Scottish Junior Cup is the most glittering of prizes in the junior ranks however success and a good run in that competition eluded Dallas who said: “This is my best ever run in any national cup competition as East Kilbride were put out early in the Scottish junior Cup and Arthurlie were the same.”
“This is my first ever senior Scottish Cup campaign so to win four games so far has been terrific. It is also the best Cup run Albion Rovers have had in 80 years so it is very exciting for everyone. They had been notorious for poor cup runs in recent years so this has more than made up for it for the fans and the players.”
James Ward’s side have not travelled far in the Cup this season to be successful in seeing off teams from four different leagues with Lowland League, Highland League, Premiership and League 1 opposition all knocked out without a goal being conceded in Lanarkshire.
Dallas said: “We have faced an eclectic mix of teams with Spartans in the First Round and then Deveronvale in the Second. Those two games were difficult ones to kill off the opposition in but we got through 1-0 both times.”
“We then played Motherwell with the game switched from our Cliftonhill home to Hamilton’s New Douglas Park. We won that 1-0 and that was a tremendous result for the club.”
The striker ploughed a lonely furrow at times in that game as he explained: “I started in that one with the manager going with me up top in a 4-5-1 formation. It was real shift and to be honest not many people expected us to do anything in it.”
“However we went from a position of being nervous to growing in confidence the longer the game went on. After ending the first half without losing a goal and beginning the second in the same manner allowed us to start thinking that perhaps we might get a replay.”
Dallas had run his race before the game’s decisive moment as he explained: “I had been substituted by the time we scored in injury time as my legs had gone. Mind you I was able to get off the bench and celebrate Gary Phillips’ goal.”
That result put Rovers on the front pages of all the sports supplements however Cup fever in Coatbridge died down for a while with Dallas saying: “There was a more than 2 month gap from beating Motherwell to facing Stenhousemuir. We had played against Stenhousemuir the season before in the Second Division and done well so we went into the game with nothing to be frightened of.”
“To be honest, when we were drawn at home and they had been on a difficult run, we fancied our chances a bit. On the day we played really well but I won’t claim an assist for the first goal even as I was not that close to their player who headed the ball into his own net.”
Dallas added: “I will take an assist for the second as I headed Mark McGuigan’s cross down for Garry to score another cup goal.”
That result put Albion Rovers into the last 8 for the first time since 1934 and after Dundee United had booked their place by defeating St. Mirren the following day, Dallas watched the draw live on TV.
Dallas said: “I was at my wife’s mum and dad’s house watching it. Let’s just say it was entertaining to be drawn away to Rangers and then have my phone beeping almost instantly with lots of messages.”
“Dunterlie to Ibrox is only a few miles in distance terms but it is huge in a football sense. I could never have envisaged playing in a Cup Quarter Final there but I am doing it now.”
It will be a day of firsts for Dallas who said: “I have never played against Rangers at any level or even visited Ibrox before. Of course it is very exciting and of course the interest from it being shown live on SKY Sports is huge as well. But we have had a hard week of preparing for a huge game and we are looking forward to it.”
The meeting of the two clubs is the second time this season they have faced each other and it is the second time that they have been live on TV.
Dallas said: “The Ramsdens Cup game at the start of the season was a big game as well and it was live on BBC ALBA. We lost that one 4-0 and want to put on a better show than that this time especially as this is an even bigger game as that was a first round tie and there is a semi-final place available in this one.”
Rovers have all but sold out their ticket allocation with Dallas saying: “I will have a few family and friends coming to watch me but to be honest the manager has been trying to avoid the hype. He wants us to go about the game with our normal routine. All week he has spoken about keeping things normal. “
There is one normal that Dallas and Rovers would like to keep as he explained: “Normal in the Scottish Cup would be keeping our record going of having not conceded a goal. That is an amazing statistic and one we know will be hard to keep at Ibrox.”
Dallas finished by saying: “It is a long way from playing at the Showground in East Kilbride and Arthurlie’s Dunterlie to being marked by Lee McCulloch at Ibrox. I have put in a lot of hard work into getting there and hopefully I will enjoy the occasion.”
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