PARTY FOR WIN
Davidson will finally get his cup knees-up after Saints keep top-six hopes alive
Callum Davidson toasted his Saints heroes for keeping their top-six hopes alive then vowed to finally get his Betfred Cup party started.
Former Hibee Liam Craig struck his first goal since the opening day of the season to deliver a huge boost to his side’s hopes of grabbing a top- half finish and dent his old team’s hopes of third spot.
The veteran midfielder brilliantly curled home from 20 yards after 15 minutes as Saints ended an historic week on a high.
The Betfred Cup winners were out on their feet in the closing stages but threw everything in front of the Hibs charge to secure what is only their fourth home league win of the season.
That sets up a pulsating top- six shoot- out in a fortnight’s time when Ross County visit Perth while St Mirren, who are two points better off, travel to Hamilton Accies.
Before then Davidson vowed to have a well- earned drink to celebrate a stunning week for Saints.
He said: “It’s been a huge six days and football wise it’s probably the worst we’ve played all season.
“Character wise it’s probably the biggest. They knew they had to go and get three points today to give us a chance of the top six.
“Everyone put a real shif t in. I thought about putting players in different positions like Liam Craig.
“That’s three games in six days so all credit to him how he looks after
himself. We’ll get a well-earned break now. I am going to go home tonight and finally celebrate the cup victory.
“I think some of the boys celebrated on Sunday night so it’s just me and my staff who never got the chance who will get a drink tonight.
“I wi l l enjoy that but more importantly the players will get a few days off. We had a lot of players who played today who were struggling, guys like Ali McCann, Chris Kane and Callum Booth.
“A lot of players have gone through the pain barrier today to get the points so that’s really pleasing.
“They want to be there and are desperate to play. They can be really proud of their week. It’s been huge for the club. I’m delighted with them.
“We’ve given ourselves a chance and something to fight for in our last game. That was the message today and you could see with the way the players defended and put their bodies on the line they all knew that.”
Hibs recalled Kevin Nisbet and Ryan Porteous to the starting line-up for the first time since they were front and centre of Hibs’ deadline day activity over a month and six games ago.
They began brightly. Jackson Irvine’s neat through ball was latched on to by Martin Boyle who went down inside the box under close attention from Liam Gordon but referee David Dickinson waved play on.
However it was Saints who took the lead when Josh Doig could only half clear Booth’s deep cross, allowing Craig to brilliantly bend a shot past
Ofir Marciano from 20 yards. Nisbet, with one goal since Christmas, wasn’t lacking in work rate but was starved of service where it mattered.
Hibs went in at the interval facing the same predicament as they did at Hampden when these two last met.
Irvine went close to a leveller just two minutes into the second half when his header from Boyle’s corner flew just wide.
Ross threw on Christian Doidge to partner Nisbet before Paul Hanlon saw a header sail just over when he really should have hit the target.
Goalscorer Craig then had to t ime a sl id ing tack le to per fect ion as he denied Nisbet who was homing in on goal with just over half an hour remaining.
Hibs had troubled Zander Clark’s goal more in 15 secondhalf minutes than they had in the entire first period and Doidge was next to try his luck when he struck a Nisbet lay-off towards goal only to see keeper Clark push it over the bar.
Doig twice went close with drives from outside the box and Saints were out on their feet after a hectic six-day spell. It took a desperate lunge from Craig to block a Hanlon drive from inside the box.
Still the leveller wouldn’t come though and Hibs boss Ross talked his way into Dickinson’s book after the whistler waved play on as Doidge went down on the edge of the box.
There was time for one last attempt as Nisbet’s knockdown found Paul McGinn inside the six- yard box.
His effort was snuffed out by another desperate block from Jamie McCart just seconds before the final whistle sounded to hand Saints three battling points.
Rooney’s in pages of history
I have two contacts books spanning 51 years of involvement in this malarkey.
One could give you the number of Shaun Rooney, scorer of the goal that won St Johnstone the Betfred Cup last Sunday.
We discussed his place in the club’s history on radio the day after the win over Livingston. One tribute referred to Shaun as an “immortal”.
He’s clearly a graduate of Daft As A Brush Academy – and none the worse for that – but Rooney warmed to the tribute bestowed on him.
My other contacts book is alternatively titled the Book of Remembrance.
It’s stuffed full of details of those we have loved but who are now no longer with us or are living in sad circumstances.
The Saint’s in there.
Big Go-go. Wee Jim. The Doc. That nice man Peter Lorimer.
Tommy Docherty and Jim McLean died at the turn of the year.
Since then, Gordon (Go-go) McQueen’s been diagnosed with vascular dementia and Peter’s in a care home.
Ian St John left us last Monday. He would have loved Rooney’s header – he used to do that regularly. Peter would have purred at the cross from Craig Conway for the goal. Go-go would have analysed Livi’s defending.
Wee Jim and the Doc would have berated the strikers for allowing a midfielder to score.
The moral is it’s a hard time to be an old dodderer drawing a line through names in a book on a now regular basis.
But new heroes like Rooney write fresh stories while the giants of the past are not diminished by the passing of time.
If Rangers win the league title today on the back of Celtic dropping points at Tannadice you could hardly say they’ve been crowned by default.
They had the league wrapped up by December.
The win over Celtic at Ibrox on January 2 was confirmation of what everybody already knew at the back of their minds about the progress of the season. It has been a story of Rangers’ composure over Celtic’s chaos. One team’s consistency over the other’s fatal attraction to calamity. A real tale of durabil ity over dithering. That’s why Steven Ger ra rd ’s midweek wobbly in West Lothian on Wednesday was hard to follow.
He might have been denied a penalty kick but even the EU’s Court of Human Rights would throw out any case put forward claiming victimisation of his team.
I’d put my house on Alfredo Morelos to score for the first time against Celtic when the sides meet two weeks from today.
There is an air of destiny about the whole thing.
I might be running the risk of making two OAPs homeless but I’ll be gambling responsibly.
It’s Celtic who find themselves stuck between a rock and a snide place today.
And they represent the biggest gamble of all, bearing in mind
Celtic themselves don’t appear to know what will happen to them from one game to the next.
We frequently recall Rangers’ title-winning Helicopter Sunday. Today it’s fruit cocktail Sunday.
Dundee United have Mellon. Celtic have supporters ready to go bananas if they witness on t e l e v i s io n t he o f f i c i a l , unequivocal, irrefutable end of the 10-in-a-row dream.
Micky Mellon would have hoped to be involved in a title drama when he took over as United manager at the start of the season.
Being from the West of Scotland he’ll understand the implications of his cameo role.
If Celtic do win then Rangers can take the title on the ground of
their deadliest rivals in a symbolic transfer of power.
It would be incendiary in more ways than one if Wednesday night’s pyrotechnics at the Tony Macaroni Arena are anything to go by.
If Celtic drop points today, however, then tradition demands we open the debate on whether they should give the new champions a guard of honour when they next visit Parkhead. No, they shouldn’t. Just as Rangers were right not to give Celtic a guard of honour when the boot was on the other foot.
For all that the description implies dignity and respect, that’s not what it means where these two are concerned. It is meant as a punishment exercise to be inflicted on one set of supporters for the enjoyment of another set of fans who want to rub their opponents’ noses in their own misfortune. Rangers have won the title for reasons that don’t stand on ceremony. Their players don’t need hollow applause from fellow pros who wouldn’t be show ing an ounce of sincerity while f o rmi n g t wo disinterested lines before kick- off.
And Gerrard doesn’t need to be patronised by hollow gestures when Gers have achieved success on the back of their own hard work.
It’s not a guard of honour so much as a firing squad that should concern Celtic. Neil Lennon has gone. A vocal percentage have made known their opposition to John Kennedy being appointed as his successor.
Rarely has the pool of realistic candidates for the job looked so shallow.
Steve Clarke has taken a swift step to the side by reaffirming his sole interest being qualification to the next World Cup with Scotland.
You can, for a variety of reasons, forget all about Rafa Benitez, Henrik Larsson, Roy Keane and Roberto Martinez.
As for the other guy whose name keeps cropping up? For me it isn’t a matter of Howe, more like a question of why?
But former Bournemouth boss Eddie, who didn’t cut it at Burnley when he went there, will doubtless be watching what happens at Tannadice today.
If he turns off before the game’s finished it’ll give us an indication of the way he’s thinking.
Rar poo ely lof has can real the thedida istic job tes so look for sha ed llow