I had Defoe’s name on my back ...now I’m aiming to get on HIS
Livi stopper Guthrie aims to blank out his boyhood hero
Today Jon Guthr ie i s more interested in having Jermain Defoe in his back pocket.
The 27-year-old Livingston defender came north in the summer exactly for afternoons like this.
He gave up the journeyman days of League One and Two for live TV, a reborn love of the game and a sense of occasion he reckons a lot of his peers down south are still too arrogant to recognise.
The 6ft 3in stopper plied his trade in England’s third and fourth tiers with Crewe and Walsall for more than 200 matches before Gary Holt tempted him to try the Premiership.
And he admitted: “I’ve played some big games in England but nothing that compares to facing Rangers or Celtic.
“This will be my third TV game since I came up here. The whole time I played in England I was maybe only on telly three or four times.
“You get a lot of exposure here and being on TV gives you added incentive.
“With all your friends and family watching, you want to do your best.
“Playing at Ibrox was comfortably the best atmosphere I’ve experienced.
“We lost 3-1 so the result didn’t go our way but it was a great game to be involved in. My matches in England don’t compare to that. They’re the reason players come up here.
“And it’s huge to play against stars like Defoe.
“I was a Tottenham supporter growing up and a big fan.
“But playing against the likes of him, testing yourself against the best, that’s why I came here.
“A lot of people in England are arrogant about Scottish football.
“But I’d say the top teams are a level above what I’ve been playing against.
“The rest are no different – so it’s rubbish to talk down Scottish football.”
Born and raised in Wiltshire, Guthrie has no recollection of why he became a Spurs fan – but he and his mates journeyed faithfully to White Hart Lane.
He said: “It was surreal, facing Defoe at Ibrox.
“You’re focused on the game but when he came on as a sub, you’re thinking, ‘ Wow, this is amazing’.
“I grew up supporting him. I had his name on the back of one of my tops when I was a boy.
“It was hard to get to every game when I was younger, because I was playing football at weekends, but I used to go when I could for midweek games and I saw Defoe play a lot.
“I’m from near Swindon, nowhere near Tottenham, so I don’t know how I ended up supporting them.
“But it worked out well and there was a little group of fans where I was from.
“Playing against Defoe, you can see he’s still a top- class player.
“It’s just l ittle things, l ike his movement, and he’s a top finisher. If he gets a little chance he’s going to take it.
“Can he do it on a plastic pitch in Livingston though? Hopefully not!
“The one thing I didn’t do at Ibrox was get a shirt off him after the game – I bottled it! Hopefully in the next few games I’ll see what I can do.”
Not that Guthrie is naive enough to think Defoe is his only problem – he has faced Alfredo Morelos twice already this season and admits it’s as physical an encounter as any he had in the rough-and-tumble world of League One.
He said: “Morelos is a lot more physical. He’s deceptively strong.
“He’s not the tallest but manages to almost run through you at times.
“You know it will be a battle but we’ve actually dealt quite well with him over the two games this season.
“You get to know players better the more you play against them so hopefully I’ll be well equipped to deal with him this time.”
Guthrie’s Walsall side took the relegation plunge into
League Two on the final day of last season.
He admits his rebirth at
Livingston under
Holt has helped restore his fa ith in the game.
He said: “It’s hard being pa r t of a relegation season, it ’ s impossible to enjoy your football. You try to keep your spirits up but it’s hard if you’re losing most weeks.
“It affects you outside of football as well. You try to separate your personal life from your professional one but once you’re down there in a scrap like that it takes you over.
“It’s hard to stop thinking about it, hard not to overthink it, you’re desperate to get those wins.
“Once you’re in a rut it’s hard to get out of it. We lost a manager we a l l liked as
well, which is never nice.
“So it’s good to have left that behind for a fresh start and excitement again in my game.
There’s a general arrogance down there, not just from players – fans as well.
“They th ink people come up here for an easy ride but that ’ s far f rom the
truth.”