My Saints were better than Real Madrid for 20 mins
Coyle recalls Perth promotion heartache as he prepares to face old club with the Staggies
OWEN COYLE will never forget the day he had St Johnstone playing better than Galacticos only for a last-gasp Gretna goal to deny them promotion.
That won’t stop him plotting another Saints downfall a decade on as the Ross County boss faces his former club for the first time in a competitive game tonight.
Coyle’s side looked set for the top flight in 2007 after winning a thriller 4-3 at Hamilton only for James Grady’s strike against Ross County to pip them at the post.
Seven months later he left for Burnley but the 51-year-old will always have fond memories of a two-and-a-half year stint during which Saints made two cup semis.
He said: “We were 15 points behind Gretna in January but took it to the last game.
“We finished with a win at Hamilton – where they hadn’t lost all year – seven minutes before the Gretna game ended.
“In the first 20 minutes I swear St Johnstone team were better than Real Madrid.
“We then had to wait in the dressing room. We were league champions at that point but we all know what happened. When all is said though that’s the making of you as a person, a manager, a team.
“The boys then won the Challenge Cup the season after. I drove back north after my first game in charge at Burnley and watched them do it.
“It is a wonderful club and I have wonderful memories. I wish them the best but not in this game. This will be my first competitive game back at St Johnstone but I always took my other teams back in pre-season because of the relationship I had there.”
And he believes the ethos he experienced under ex-chairman Geoff Brown, whose son Steve is now in post, is what he has found again under Roy MacGregor.
Coyle said: “Geoff first and foremost is a wonderful man – an outstanding football man – and similar to Roy in many ways in what he has done for his club.
“Everybody knows the finances these two men have poured into it. But what they’ve also poured in is heart and soul because they’re so passionate.
“Those are the type of chairmen a manager enjoys working for. They tell you straight if they’re not happy and you know where you stand.
“Whether you are 51 or 35 that’s the type of person you want to work for – and a big reason why I’m here at Ross County.”
Saturday’s 2-1 victory over Accies made it two wins in Coyle’s first three Staggies games. And skipper Andrew Davies believes he earned instant respect in a demoralised dressing room for acknowledging the “fantastic” work former boss Jim McIntyre and his No.2 Billy Dodds did.
He said: “Nothing has really changed apart from the fact everyone’s morale is that bit higher. I respect the gaffer for that.
“If he had just come in and ripped it up it probably would have been the wrong way.”