Saint that a shame!
BRAWL AT ACCIES CAUSED WHEELS TO COME OFF FOR TRACTOR BOYS
Perth is usually only rocked by violence when a red mist descends over the blue rinses following disputed bingo calls.
But three years ago Richard Foster and Danny Swanson feared their number was up at St Johnstone following an astonishing on- field brawl during a defeat at Hamilton.
Foster’s pop star wife Amy MacDonald once joked that her hubby had pulled off the impossible task of uniting Scottish football’s fans – in their dislike of him.
A shock loan move from Aberdeen to bitter rivals Rangers made him persona non-grata with both the Red Army and the Celtic support.
The full-back also isn’t fondly remembered by the blue half of Glasgow due to his second spell ending with the disastrous season that saw Gers fail to climb out of the Championship.
He seems to get stick almost everywhere he goes, leaving Foster to ponder if he has one of those faces “everyone loves to hate”.
Yet for all the animosity fired towards him by opposition fans, it’s a clash with a team-mate that has secured his place in Scottish football’s Hall of Infamy.
It all kicked off on April 1, 2017 with Foster and Swanson behaving like April Fools as they turned from Saints into sinners by laying into each other.
Their scrap came just moments af ter ref Don Robertson had called time on a forgettable first half, with both players frustrated at their side’s poor showing.
Instead of having it out in the dressing room, they went for each other’s throats before getting involved with Accies No.2 Guillaume Beuzelin after he informed the whistler both should be sent off.
Robertson actually ended up flashing three red cards with Beuzelin also banished for the second half along with the St Johnstone pugilists.
Having let their team-mates down, the warring duo were left together in the away dressing room while nine-man Saints tried to hold out for a point.
Within 10 minutes they had made up, reconciling with a hug, but both must have feared another battering from gaffer Tommy Wright after Accies had netted a last-minute winner.
The fearsome Perth boss was fuming when he faced the press, saying: “In my day someone hit you in the dressing room and it stayed there.”
Wright vowed “the strongest possible action”, with Swanson and Foster forced to wait until a ful l club investigation had ended before learning their punishment.
Foster would later brand that week in Perth purgatory as the “worst of his career”, quite a claim given he took part in Gers’ 6-1 aggregate humping by Motherwell in the 2015 play-offs.
Yet McDiarmid Park chiefs stopped short of the ultimate sanction, instead fining both players four weeks’ wages to go with their two-game SFA bans.
It’s a punishment that would have hurt Swanson more than Foster, given the latter’s missus boasts a selection of luxury cars that includes a Ferrari.
Yet it was on humble buses that Saints spent a portion of the fines to give fans free travel.
It’s just a shame they didn’t put 100 per cent of the money towards those coaches as St Johnstone’s travelling support would probably sti ll be travelling gratis to away games.