IT was Adam Idah who was hailed as a hero by jubilant Celtic fans after the Scottish Gas Scottish Cup final at Hampden last year due to the dramatic last-minute winner which he scored against Rangers.
And it is Idah who has been both reminded of and thanked for his late, late strike by appreciative supporters on an almost daily basis in the 12 months which have elapsed since.
But would the Republic of Ireland internationalist have written his name into the Glasgow club’s history books and been thrust into the spotlight without the assistance of one of his unheralded team mates?
The striker acknowledges that he has an awful lot to thank Paulo Bernardo, who produced an outstanding passage of play during the build-up to the goal, for.
The Portuguese midfielder rode a tackle by Nicolas Raskin in the centre circle and advanced upfield before unleashing a wicked swerving shot from distance which Jack Butland could only palm clear. Idah was perfectly positioned to pounce and net from close range. The rest is hysteria.
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So it is maybe no surprise that the £9m summer signing, who took his tally for club and country in the 2024/25 campaign to 21 with another last-minute effort in the 5-1 win over Aberdeen in a William Hill Premiership game at Pittodrie last Wednesday night, is not overly concerned about the absence of Reo Hatate just now.
The 24-year-old would obviously love it if Hatate, the Japanese internationalist who suffered a season-ending injury following a poor challenge by Pape Gueye last week, was available to take part in the Scottish Cup final against Jimmy Thelin’s men this weekend.
However, he knows from personal experience that former Benfica man Bernardo, who started alongside Callum McGregor and Arne Engels in the middle of the pitch in the league meeting with St Mirren last Saturday, is a more than capable deputy.
“Paulo's been brilliant,” said Idah. “I've said it to anyone who asks me - Paulo's one of the best players in the squad. He's technically unbelievable. You see it in training week in, week out. He's a fantastic player.
“But at the same time, no matter who's behind me or who's there in the team, I think I've got as much confidence in everyone because we've got such a fantastic squad. Anyone who's playing on the park, I trust and I believe they can create stuff.
“But Paulo helped to set up the goal and that was obviously a special moment for me. It was great to get the winner. It was my last game for the club and I was on loan, so it was a proud thing for me.
“It's something you don't even dream of. It's one of those things that's so amazing that it's hard to take it in. It took me a while to realise what I'd done. I've watched the video so many times. It was an unbelievable feeling to do that against them in that manner. It was amazing. “It's exciting to go back there and hopefully we can go and win it again. People remind me of it quite a bit to be fair. It's good to be reminded of it. But at the same time I've got to stay focused. I know those opportunities don't come around often. I've just got to focus on the next task and hopefully we can go and do it this week.”
“The result was a credit to the boys who finished off the game. They put in a tough shift and kept going right to the very end. That's what the staff and us players have done brilliantly. Although we've won the league early on, we didn't want to cruise through it. We still had our own targets that we wanted to achieve. “We didn't want to take any game easy. We wanted to build momentum going into the cup final, to stick with it. It was a bit unfortunate on Saturday. We didn't play our best, but we kept grinding through.”
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Idah, who is looking forward to returning to his home town with Celtic for a pre-season friendly against Cork City in the summer, would love the defending champions to win the Scottish Cup final in style this weekend and avoid the same nerve-shredding encounter as they had against Rangers last year.
“It was good when it was finished, but it wasn’t during the game,” he said. “Like I said, we want to go out there and perform. Cup games are a lot different. “It's not a case where you can't perform well and just cruise through it. You have to be on your top level and you can go either way. That's what we want - to go there and do it and be successful.
“I'm really looking forward to the game in Cork this summer. I haven't played back home since I was 16 or 17. To go back with Celtic is going to be amazing. I don't know which team they're going to support, Cork City or Celtic, but it should be a fantastic occasion. Hopefully we go there as treble winners.”
