Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Goal hero Rooney pays tribute to late mother
SHAUN Rooney’s firsthalf goal proved enough to earn St Johnstone only the second piece of major silverware in the club’s 137-year history.
The defender bulleted a header past Livingston keeper Robby McCrorie in the 32nd minute at Hampden Park to secure the League Cup for Saints for the first time.
The McDiarmid Park side’s triumph – with Callum Davidson in the hot seat – comes nearly seven years after Tommy Wright’s men lifted the Scottish Cup after beating Dundee United at Celtic Park.
The Perth side held on without any scares to become the first club outside Celtic to win a major Scottish trophy since Hibernian triumphed in the 2016 Scottish Cup final.
In the aftermath of the victory, match-winner Rooney paid tribute to his late mother Elizabeth, who died in July 2019 following a battle with cancer.
The 24-year-old said: “I’m over the moon. I can’t hide the emotion. I’m still buzzing.
“I want to thank my mum. Obviously she has passed away but this is massive for my whole family.
“I think everyone in the family will have a tear in their eye but I’m absolutely buzzing.”
Rooney added: “I just managed to get in front of my man and put it away.
“I love coming back here (to Hampden) – I played here with Queen’s Park and those were happy days for me.”
Asked about boss Callum Davidson, he joked: “What a manager, what a gaffer – just a pity he didn’t play me much at the start of the season or we might be higher up the league.”
The St Johnstone boss fought back tears after the match.
He said: “I would like to thank my backroom staff. They work really hard to help me do my job.
“I would also like to thank my family for all their support.”
Davidson added: “It’s difficult times we are living through right now so to give the people of Perth something to cheer about, the fans who can’t be here today, this moment just means I’m so honoured to be manager of St Johnstone.
“You don’t realise until you’ve won the cup what it means to St Johnstone and the players, who I thought were magnificent today.”
Former Scotland striker Billy Dodds – who had a spell at McDiarmid Park in the 1990s – said the better team won at Hampden.
The BBC pundit said: “It’s brilliant for Callum. I have to say, his team thoroughly deserved it.
“The back three were brilliant and Rooney was brilliant.
“You feel as if Livi didn’t want to lose it rather than win it. David
Martindale (Livingston manager) will have real regrets.”
Livingston had the bulk of the early pressure in the match from setpieces and high balls into the box.
But Saints made the most of their first corner as Rooney shrugged off the close attentions of Jon Guthrie to head Craig Conway’s outswinging delivery in off the post.
In the second half, Livingston could not carve out anything of note in response to Rooney’s goal, and Saints squandered several opportunities to hit their opponents on the break.