Macca wants scenes of glory

"We want to make amends and try and win the Cup but we know how difficult it is going to be.

Jim McIntyre only joined Dunfermline for the start of this season and although he still had ambitions even he thought that he might have seen his last chance for a Scottish Cup Final appearance disappear in 2005.  Two years on however he is on the brink of his third Scottish Cup Final and he feels that the final is just the tonic the twelfth placed team requires:-

"Any team would loved to be involved in the cup final, that's for sure. The last week has been a hard week but everybody has put it out of our minds now. It's gone, it's happened. Probably with ending it a week earlier and not going to the last day of the season the boys have had a week to get over it. If it had happened this week you would still have had a really bitter feeling in the build up and you probably wouldn't have been able to enjoy this week. The boys are in a great frame of mind, training went well and we are just looking forward to everything that goes with a Cup Final."

Relegation brought huge disappointment to East End Park and Jim described to "as just the worst that can happen" but the Scottish Cup Final gives the club a great opportunity to restore pride. Jim continued:-

"It takes you a wee while. Even after this game is gone, when we see the fixture list next season then it will hit you again. Obviously we want to make amends and try and win the Cup but we know how difficult it is going to be. We are playing the champions, the best team in Scotland. On our day we have shown that we can be a formidable side."

Evidence of that is the fact that the Pars have seen off the combined Edinburgh challenge, Rangers and Partick Thistle.

"If we do win the cup we have certainly done it the hardest way possible."

Jim who celebrates his 35th birthday on Thursday has a wealth of Scottish Cup experience to call on. Though he missed the 2005 Cup Final through suspension he was instrumental in getting Dundee United through in the semi final, he was a winner with Kilmarnock in the Ibrox final of 1997 and was a sub with Airdrie in the 1995 Scottish Cup Final against Celtic. When he sat out the final two years ago he thought that he might have missed out his final opportunity to appear in the Scottish Cup Final but now it was his goal from the spot that secured the Pars place in the final.

"You do think with your age that you will not see it again. Lucky enough we have managed to get there again so you just have to savour these moments because it is a fantastic feeling to be involved with the so called smaller clubs getting to cup finals and everything that brings with your family, the excitement, the build up, well wishers etc. it is a great occasion to be involved in."

Jim McIntyre knows that he has been very lucky to have had as much cup success:-

"There are players who are a lot better footballer players than I'll ever be - John Robertson springs to mind, never won until he got to the age of 36. What a goalscorer, what a player he had been for Hearts for all these years. That was his first cup final so I realise how lucky I am to be involved in three cup finals and this will be my fourth although I couldn't play for United."

The cup final is a welcome bonus for the player who had a career threatening neck injury at the start of the season:-

"I was banging my head against a brick wall obviously in a good bit of pain, then I had the surgery and it was a dicey operation so you don't think about these things. Nights like Hampden in the semi final rewards all the hard work."

Gary Mason has played in 42 of Dunfermline's 45 matches so far this season but he is now in a similar situation to the one that Jim encountered in 2005, missing out through suspension that kicked in through a yellow card sustained in the semi final:-

"I know how bad that is because that is the worst feeling in the world. It will hit Gary when the team walks out and he is sitting in the stand. That is probably the hardest part. He is such an integral part of our team. He does a great job for the team and is an unsung hero who doesn't get the credit he deserves sometimes.

"When your team is going, the fans are all singing and they are lining up looking for their families and you are sat in the stand, it is horrible, it is just not nice."

Also missing the cup final is the on loan Celtic player Jim O'Brien; his disappointment however will be slightly different and the Republic of Ireland U21 internationalist will have mixed emotions as he watches his two clubs play at Hampden on Saturday. Macca differentiated though between his and Gary Mason's positions:-

"I think Celtic are within their rights with the Jim O'Brien situation. It could come back to haunt Celtic, there has been enough talked about that. It is hard but he is young, an excellent young player and he will have plenty time to try and get to another cup final.."

Jim was not willing to be fooled into any false state of security by Celtic's poor run of results that has seen them lose six, draw one and only win four in the 11 matches since Dunfermline lost 2-1 to them at Celtic Park at the beginning of March.

"They did their business in the league a long time ago. I think the cup final will just take care of itself because they have such good players who have all been through it loads of times before. They have the winning habit and they know how to win in big games. I do not see their league form being an issue at all."

Stephen Kenny's ability to get the best out of his team in cup games is not something that Jim McIntyre could explain:-

"He is a good motivator and he gets you pumped up when you are just about to enter the field. That is his strength and he is tactically sound." But when asked if he thought that Stephen Kenny would use some of the Pars cup winning history to raise the team Jim could only add, "I don't think you can predict anything the Manager could say in a dressing room. He is a unique man in that way, he surprises us every week."

Dunfermline have already qualified for next season's UEFA Cup and Jim was not willing to apologise for the relegated team taking up that place although he would agree to a rule change:-

"If they say you get the European place if the other team has already qualified, then you will gladly take it. I think if you win the cup great, you deserve to be in Europe but I would give it to the fourth placed team because over the season that is where it deserves to go.

"It is not us who make the rules up, it has been happening for years now, we will gladly take it and we will look forward to it. we do not need to justify it because the rules are set in place before hand so that is outwith our hands."

When Killie lifted the Scottish Cup in 1997 Jim remembers well the scenes where the crowd in Kilmarnock town centre blocked the team bus' progress. That is something he hopes to see repeated in Dunfermline come next Sunday:-

"It is everything for the fans and kids who will remember it forever. It is something that lives with you forever 40,000 people in John Finnie Street and the bus literally couldn't get up the street. It was unbelievable, an incredible thing for them, for the whole area. Even the build up to it, the money it generates for the town it is important."