The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Saints’ special memories For absent fans
There will come a time when the creatures of habit who like to get to their Mcdiarmid Park seats minutes after the turnstiles start clicking will get the first chance to applaud the Betfred Cup heroes on to a football pitch.
There will be that opportunity, as Zander Clark is collecting Paul Mathers’ lobbed kicks high above him in his warm-up in front of the Ormond Stand goal, to let the goalkeeper know the importance of his first halfhour performance against Hibs while other teammates’ minds weren’t as acutely absorbed in the contest.
There will be the chance to lean over the trackside wall of the East Stand and eulogise Shaun Rooney as he pulls the ball behind his neck to launch one of his long throws into the box.
There will be a different look between a young captain and the people in the three stands he will acknowledge before and after games, regardless of results.
There might even be a trophy for him to bring out before one of those matches.
There will be walks around the city centre, trips to the bar and putts being lined up on golf courses for the locals like Liam Gordon that will forever be interrupted.
There will be anniversary reunion dinners to applaud them to their tables, stick napkins under their noses to be autographed and smartphones in front of their face for selfies.
Some of these cup finalists may well leave the club without featuring in a game of football in the blue or yellow of St Johnstone in front of supporters who now revere them as legends.
But whether they get to play again for Saints in the post-coronavirus era, play against them, or even if they go to clubs and leagues that will mean match-day paths never cross again, they will never blur into the folklore footnotes.
Fans have had to share their semi-final celebrations in so many different ways with friends and family across a city, across a country or even across the world, whereas normally they would have been able to share the excitement and pride across a Hampden passageway, a bus on the way home or a pub table.
But the joy and satisfaction is just as pure despite that – maybe even because of that.
Strip it back and football is still about making memories.
That hasn’t changed for supporters and it hasn’t changed for players either.
Craig Conway is one of the few in the Saints squad who can compare and contrast. He’s won semifinals and a final with Dundee United, a semifinal and league title with Cardiff City and now he’s played a starring role to take his current club into a national final for only the fourth time in its history.
At 35, he would recognise an anti-climactic changing room if he was in the middle of one.
Instead he was able to confirm that different, very different, doesn’t mean diluted. Winning as momentous a game as Saturday’s still delivers all the emotional highs the achievement deserves.
“It was amazing in there,” said Conway.
“It’s these times that you look back on when your career is over. You remember the way it felt in the dressing room.
“These are lads you work hard with every day and a lot of them in this team are young.
“The gaffer wouldn’t let us crack open bottles of beer or anything like that – I don’t think social distancing would work with that. But it was still a brilliant place to be.
“For us, at the end of the game the feeling is just the same for us as it would normally be if you’ve won a semi-final.
“I’ll never feeling.”
The likes of Murray Davidson, David Wotherspoon, Liam Craig and Stevie May have had the chance to forge lifelong bonds with St Johnstone and the fans who have lived their sporting peaks and troughs with them.
Conway’s short Perth career has played out in front of empty stands and echoes.
“If I’m being honest I don’t think I truly appreciated how much the supporters make football,” he said. “These last few months have changed that.
“As soon as the whistle went, it was silence. I’ve played here when it’s packed out.
“I can only imagine how many St Johnstone supporters would have loved to have been here to see this and would love to be at the final.
“But that’s the situation we’re in.
“It is strange to have been here for months but never play in front of a St Johnstone fan.
“The whole thing surreal.
“I don’t get involved in social media but I can appreciate how much this will mean to our supporters and how nerve-racking it must have been to watch it at home and not even be able to go to the pub with pals. Instead, they’ll have their kids running about the house and they’ll not have been able to concentrate!
“We’ve got winners in this squad and we know that it’s one thing getting to a final – now it’s about winning it for this club.”
As unique and unprecedented as this occasion was, the match also had an inescapable flashback feel to it.
First it took you back to 2011 – the Hampden semifinal when Derek Mcinnes’s forget that is
St Johnstone froze and let their opponents seize control.
That Jamie Murphy didn’t inflict similar wounds for Hibs as he did with Motherwell a decade ago was down to Zander Clark, the forward’s poor finishing and some good, old-fashioned fortune.
From 30 minutes or so of 2011 we moved on to a glorious moment of 2014.
A basic back-post corner routine to open the scoring worked beautifully for Wotherspoon and Kerr on Saturday, just as it had for Wotherspoon and Steven Anderson at Celtic Park against Dundee United.
If anything, this was an even more impressive leap and header and a more impressive goal. There was no Rado
Cierzniak-esque blame to be attributed to a helpless Ofir Marciano.
Then back we went from 2014 to 1998 as Callum Davidson’s team took a vice-like grip on their semi against one Edinburgh side just as ruthlessly as Sandy Clark’s had against the other.
The 3-0 scoreline was a carbon copy and so too was the “cruise control” manner in which the contest was seen through to its conclusion that Nick Dasovic last week recalled of that Easter Road triumph.
When people speak of goals changing games, the Kerr one should be held up as exhibit A.
“In the latter stages of a cup competition, you’ve got to have a little bit of luck on your side and I think in the first half, especially early, we didn’t start well,” said Conway.
“They’ve hit the bar and had a couple of chances. They were warnings for us.
“The goal probably settled us down a little bit and as the first half wore on we started to play a little bit and find space. D (Wotherspoon) and I managed to get on the ball a little bit more.
“In the second half, I thought we were excellent.
“We were on the front foot, put them under pressure, finding space and creating chances.
“To go on and win 3-0 was thoroughly deserved.
“We were optimistic – confident in our own tactics and performance but we probably didn’t expect that.
“Hibs are a top side with some great players but in the end it was pretty comfortable.”
And for a manager in his first season as a number one, the confirmation of a bold tactical set-up and an even bolder team selection (swapping Conway for Guy Melamed) paying off will elevate Davidson’s status and confidence.
“This will stand us in good stead,” said Conway.
“I felt it kind of all clicked together, especially in the second half. We were clinical.
“We have got a lot of younger lads in the team and the only way you gain experience is by being in situations like this.
“It will do them a lot of good going through that.”