Kenny Miller<\/a> heading into extra time and with the sides locked at 2-2 after 120 minutes he was among the first to thrust his hand up for spot kicks.<\/p>\nUnfortunately for Clark, Celtic keeper Craig Gordon was just as quick throwing up his left palm to divert his penalty onto the bar and over.<\/p>\n
Suddenly the horror of becoming the Old Firm Hampden fall guy washed over the Gers man. Yet barely 30 seconds later Wes Foderingham flopped down to save Scott Brown\u2019s effort to restore parity.<\/p>\n
And by the time Tom Rogic skied through Hoops\u2019 eighth kick Clark and his team mates were in dreamland.<\/p>\n
Looking back this week, the 34-year-old told Mail Sport: \u201cI\u2019ve won league titles with Rangers, Dundee United and Queen of the South but that game is still one of the highlights of my career – despite missing the penalty!<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was an incredible game. Most people remember it for Barrie McKay\u2019s stunning goal.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a bit different for me. It’s a horrible feeling any time you miss a penalty. But in a game of that magnitude was horrendous.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo make it even worse it was at the Celtic end of Hampden. At that precise moment I wanted the ground to swallow me up.<\/p>\n
\u201cThinking you\u2019ve cost your team the game by missing a penalty. To be fair it was a great save by Craig Gordon.<\/p>\n
\u201cThankfully my teammates managed to pull us out of the hole and Scott Brown missed one straight after me, so that kind of let me off the hook.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s all a blur after that until the celebrations in the dressing room. It was absolutely incredible.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were in the division below at the time, and I don’t think anyone fancied us.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously beating Celtic and competing with them throughout the 120 minutes was a bit of a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were showing that we were getting back to our best and we were able to compete with the best in the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cCeltic must have seen that as well because they went and got Brendan Rodgers that summer. They must have had a wee feeling that Rangers were coming back.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe definitely took a lot of confidence for that game. It gave us belief that we could go and compete.\u201d<\/p>\n
There would be no winners\u2019 medal after that Hampden high was followed by a career low a month later when Mark Warburton\u2019s side lost the final to Hibs.<\/p>\n
That spelled the end of Clark\u2019s Gers career and, a decade on, he still grimaces at the missed opportunity to have left on a high.<\/p>\n
But his match worn shirt from that semi final is still a cherished memento in the Clark household, alongside his father Sandy\u2019s Hampden jersey from 32 years earlier.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cThat was kind of a dream growing up, knowing my dad had played for the club.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve actually still got that semi final shirt at my parents\u2019 house. It\u2019s with my dad\u2019s 1984 League Cup Final one. I think Ally McCoist scored a hat-trick for Rangers in that game when they beat Celtic.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be signed by Ally more than 30 years later, knowing what he means to that club, was extra special.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe objective when I signed was to get the club back to where it belonged. I take a lot of pride in helping do that.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut from the high of that semi final win, the final was probably the lowest point of my career. Along with getting relegated with St Johnstone last season.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe felt we had a real opportunity to win the cup but turned in probably the worst performance of the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was my last appearance for Rangers which made it hurt that bit more. I spoke to Warburton about my future. I liked him, he was the first coach I\u2019d had who played that way, building from the back.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it was clear I wasn\u2019t going to get regular game time. So at 24 that was what I needed.\u201d<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/JS82809251.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
(Image: SNS Group)<\/p>\n
Clark was in good company among the spot kick sinners that day at Hampden. A certain James Tavernier also missed from 12 yards.<\/p>\n
But a decade on, Clark isn\u2019t surprised to see the skipper still at the forefront.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cNot in the slightest. I saw the quality he had from the first day he walked in the door at Rangers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe amount of goals, assists and games he’s played, taking Rangers to the Europa League final, winning the golden boot in Europe from right back is absolutely extraordinary.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of the stick that he gets isn\u2019t fair but I suppose when you’re carrying the weight of that armband then he’s probably the one who gets going to get it the most.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I know what kind of guy he is. He can handle that. That’ll be the thing that\u2019ll annoy him most, that he’s not been able to bring more trophies back to Ibrox.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe that will change in the coming weeks. If it\u2019s not Rangers then I\u2019d love to see Lawrence Shankland do it for Hearts and get his spot in the World Cup squad.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlaying beside Shanks at Dundee United was brilliant. He\u2019s always been a top striker, a goalscorer. But he\u2019s grown into a real leader too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clark will always be indebted to Queen of the South for helping fulfil a childhood dream.<\/p>\n
Now he\u2019s returned to Palmerston he is desperate to repay the Doonhamers by firing them back into the Championship.<\/p>\n
After a bizarre first half of the season that saw the frontman sign for Ross County and go through three managers in four months as the Staggies plunged to the bottom of the Championship, the 34-year-old made the 250-mile move from Dingwall to Dumfries on deadline day in February.<\/p>\n
Back to the club where he banged in 41 goals in the 2012-13 season to help Queens win League One – and himself a bumper move to Rangers.<\/p>\n
Three goals since his return to Palmerston have helped Peter Murphy\u2019s side to the verge of the play-offs.<\/p>\n
And Clark is determined to finish the job – and prove there\u2019s plenty of life in the legs yet.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cIt never worked out at Ross County. I never really got a sniff and the turnover of managers made it a strange time.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just never worked despite having some really good players and bags of experience in the dressing room.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d put everything into it. I\u2019d moved up there after just having my second child and was keen to give it a go.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I came to an agreement in January to get back down the road.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I\u2019m absolutely delighted to be back at Queens.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe goal is to get the club back into the Championship.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is where it all really kicked off for me. That season we won the league under Allan Johnston was superb.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was surrounded by good players like Derek Lyle, guys that helped me along, and now I\u2019m sort of in that position trying to help the young ones coming through now.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m signed until the end of the season and don\u2019t want to look any further at the moment. It\u2019s all about trying to get this club back into the Championship.<\/p>\n
\u201cDoing that might open things up in the summer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m feeling really good. The stats that you see now, I’m covering the most distances in the games that I’ve played since I came to Queen of the South.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo that shows that I look after myself and keep my fitness at a really good level. So I’m not feeling really good, definitely got another couple of years left in me, that’s for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was a semi final for the ages and Clark – now chasing promotion with Queen of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":905551,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7826],"tags":[12631,748,2628,918,4884,11653,1946,712,2630,254680,16,15],"class_list":["post-905550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-glasgow","tag-ally-mccoist","tag-britain","tag-celtic-fc","tag-glasgow","tag-great-britain","tag-premium","tag-rangers-fc","tag-scotland","tag-scottish-cup","tag-tom-rogic","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116433747560702870","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/905550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=905550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/905550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/905551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=905550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=905550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=905550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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