Liam Scales celebrates Celtic fairytale from Darvel shocker to title glory as he singles out hidden helper in journey

Liam Scales can help Celtic sink Rangers to win a Scottish Cup – just 16 months after being devastatingly dumped out by Darvel.

The change in fortunes is almost as mad as Parkhead Santa handing over the Premiership trophy in mid-May. Scales celebrated collecting his title medal and immediately set his sights on adding another prize to his haul. Saturday’s showdown at Hampden is yet another massive occasion for the 25-year-old to savour among a season of them.

The story of his fairytale upturn is well versed, especially the chapter where he almost left Celtic on loan again before stepping in to solve an injury crisis and making himself a Hoops hero. In January of last season, he was on loan at Aberdeen and trooped off the pitch at Darvel having been involved in the seismic Scottish Cup shocker when the Ayrshire minnows humiliated the Dons.

Now he’s going to Hampden to try to win an Old Firm showpiece and he said: “That would be as far away from that night in Darvel as you can get! That’s the plan. We’re fully focused on that now. Our celebrations at the weekend weren’t as big as they were the other night. We’re totally focused, as everyone here wants the Double and we’re striving to achieve that.”

Hard moments such as Darvel stay with Scales – a reminder to keep feet firmly on the ground as things can turn rapidly as well as an appreciation of the current contrasts.

He said: “Of course. There have been times this season when the performances haven’t been as good as they should have been. I always thought that, ‘Well, I was at that point 18 months ago with Aberdeen and I managed to get back to this stage’.

“So it was just a low point and you have to bounce back and I have used that to get through tough times this