SCOTTISH CUP WINNERS
“I just want to say one last thing to my family back at home watching. My kids, my wife, mum and dad. Thanks.”
David Wotherspoon was unable to reach the end of the message before the pure, raw emotion took over live on national television. His voice had weakened and the tears started.
He had just produced a manof-the-match performance to help St Johnstone clinch the Scottish Cup for only the second time in their history. The team he adored as a young kid had just completed the double.
Living-rooms across the country, whether football fans or not, would be welling up when his interview reached its final few seconds. The words were from the heart and so genuine.
Watching with the volume turned up and all teary eyes glued to the television was the Wotherspoon family. His dad couldn’t speak. The tears were running down his face. His mum the same.
Reaching this level of footballing success does not happen overnight. Years and years of commitment and sacrifices have been required – but running out in the colours of his local team is all he ever wanted.
“David is certainly a family man and appreciates what sacrifices we made,” said proud dad Ian. “But I wouldn’t change it for the world.
“He was in his St Johnstone strip as soon as he was able to stand. He kicked a ball about in the back garden.
“I remember taking him up to watch the Monaco game. You could see it in his wee face that day. He was playing every shot.
“That was what he wanted to do. Play for St Johnstone. He has always been very quiet. He doesn’t give a lot away. But he just loves what he is doing – and even more so this year.”
Wotherspoon has always loved the game of football and he always possessed a natural ability. He was itching to play competitive football and his desire to score and create goals was evident at the age of just four.
“When his brother Ian was along at the Cubs, David started playing,” father Ian smiled.
“You needed to be six but he was only four.
“They soon realised he wasn’t the age to be playing in the games so he was sidelined and wasn’t happy about that.
“But at six he joined, then went to the Scouts and kept playing football with Bridge of Earn under-10s and 12s with Brian Sloan.
“He was top scorer with about 50+ goals a season. It was unbelievable. Every day was just football.
“He was up at St Johnstone with Alistair Stevenson too and was six or seven days a week of training. But he couldn’t get enough.”
At this point Ian and mum Sheila had the responsibility of driving their little lad around the region for weekend games. But a move to Celtic soon upped the mileage.
Four youngsters would make the weekly trips through to Glasgow. There was Wotherspoon, Ewan Moyes, Callum McKinlay and Lee Deans.
“I used to make them a flask of soup and sandwiches to eat in the car on the way through,” laughed Sheila. “It kept them going.”
It was a big commitment but the former Perth High student was being tipped for the top by youth coach Martin Miller.
As time went on, however, Wotherspoon was not content with his lack of game-time. Celtic wanted him to stay but he felt his chances in the game were better elsewhere.
“We had a big meeting with Tommy Burns,” recalls Ian. “We had a long chat with Tommy.
“Alistair Stevenson was at Hibs and that is where David wanted to go. I said: ‘It’s your life, son. You go and I’ll back you.’
“So David phoned Tommy, thanked him and then went to Hibs. He won the treble one year, lifting the Scottish Youth Cup, the East of Scotland Cup and the league trophy.
“And his first game for the senior team, he was meant to be on the bench. But someone got injured, he scored the winning goal and was man of the match.”
There were six memorable years at Easter Road in total and then the phone call he had always wanted arrived. It was St Johnstone and a two-year deal the offer. That was that and in 2013 he walked through the McDiarmid Park entrance with a beaming smile.
“He always wanted to be part of the Perth Saints at some point in his career,” Sheila said. “He was so happy to move there – and so were we.”
The rest, as they say, is history. There was the 2014 Scottish Cup win (Wotherspoon was in tears then too) and the consistent top six finishes and European football. And then came a call from the national manager of Canada John Herdman.
That was a proud moment for mum Sheila who was born