HAMPDEN PARK has not been the kindest of venues to Alan Maybury. The on-loan Aberdeen full-back has visited the stadium twice in his career and on both occasions has been left deflated. Saturday's Scottish Cup semi-final against Queen of the South at the national stadium gives the Irish international the perfect chance to add a happy memory to a currently sour collection.
"I remember being called up for the Scotland-Ireland friendly back in 2003, which was Brian Kerr's first game," Maybury recalls of his first Hampden experience. "I was called up late because a lot of people had dropped out and I was on the doorstep
at Hearts, so it was a 'come on through' sort of thing. I trained for a couple of days with the boys and even though I was led to believe I'd get some time on the pitch, it didn't work out that way.
"There's that and there is also the 2003 CIS Cup semi-final against Rangers, where we got well beaten, so they haven't been the best times. Hopefully the semi next week will be a better experience. It's one that I am really looking forward to."
Judging by his recollections, Maybury has not had the best of fortune in the Scottish Cup either, with his time at Hearts bringing back some unwanted memories.
"I don't think I've had much luck in any Scottish Cup competition," he laughs. "We got beat by Inverness when they were a division below us at the time under Craig Levein, and then there was the Falkirk game when we were 4-0 down after about half an hour. There were various stories like that, or we'd get Celtic in the third round and get beat heavily."
South of the border though, Maybury has better experiences of the cups, where he was part of some giant killing acts of his own. He was in the Leicester team that, in recent years, has taken the scalps of Blackburn, Tottenham and Aston Villa in the English cup competitions. No surprise, then, that Maybury will not be taking Queens lightly.
"They're doing well, they are there on merit so we'll need to treat them with respect," Maybury says of the Division 1 side. "But this is a good opportunity and we must take it. The manager will be telling us that we can't let it pass us by."
With Celtic already defeated in the previous round, perhaps this could be the year for Maybury to break his jinxes.
The full article contains 430 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
