True family affair for the hero Martindale won’t let cup final hurt ruin Europe push
Rooney buzzing and emotional after going one better than famous great uncle
SHAUN ROONEY emulated his famous great uncle Benny yesterday afternoon when he started for St Johnstone in the Betfred Cup decider against Livingston at Hampden.
But the right-back went one better than the former Morton and Partick Thistle manager by scoring what ultimately proved to be the winning goal in the first half and then lifting the trophy.
His footballing relation was a member of the only other Perth side to play in a final at the national stadium – the climax of the Scottish Cup St Johnstone won in 2014 was held at Parkhead – way back in 1969.
However, Celtic, whose physio that day was Benny’s father and Shaun’s greatgrandfather Bob, fielded many of the Lisbon Lions and ended up winning the League Cup thanks to an early Bertie Auld goal.
“I’m over the moon for myself and my family,” said Rooney. “I can’t hide the emotion. My dad says he doesn’t drink on Sundays . . . but we will see if he has a drink today.
“I want to thank my mum. She has passed away, but this is massive for my whole family. I think everyone in the family will have a tear in their eye. I’m absolutely buzzing.
“He [Benny Rooney] is my great uncle, I don’t know if he watched it as he has dementia. I heard stories about him from my great grandpa, who was the physio at Celtic at the time and he also told me all about their European Cup win. But I didn’t know he was as big as he actually is until I joined.”
The former defender was a member of the highly-regarded
Willie Ormond team of the late 1960s and early 1970s and was captain when St Johnstone made what was their first major final appearance 52 years ago.
However, his grand-nephew, who got on the end of a Craig Conway corner and headed beyond Livingston goalkeeper Robby McCrorie in the
32nd minute, will forever be regarded as more of a Saints legend now.
The former Inverness Caledonian Thistle player, who only moved to McDiarmid Park in the summer, also netted vital goals in the quarter-final win over Dunfermline and the semi-final victory against Hibernian.
“It feels absolutely amazing,” said Rooney. “You couldn’t write it. I’m delighted with the whole team performance, everyone to a man was excellent today.
“Jon Guthrie was marking me tight, but I gave him a bit of movement, a wee slip of the shoulder and I was away. It was a great header. I don’t know what their keeper was waving at! It was a brilliant moment and I am absolutely delighted.
“I’ve played in every game of the Betfred. I came to the club under Tommy Wright and I didn’t know what the new gaffer [Callum Davidson] wanted from me.
“He brought in Danny McNamara [the Republic of Ireland Under-21 right-back who was on loan from Millwall in the first half of the 2020/21 season] who was excellent and I had to bide my time.
“I had the Betfred Cup games when he was away on international duty so I have to thank the manager for playing me in the quarter-final when Danny was there and fit, ready to play.
“He picked me to play and I scored a goal. Danny was away by the semi-final against Hibs so I could relax. I tried as hard as I could to get into the team. The Kilmarnock game last month killed me a bit. I had to bounce back and I did that.”
The 24-year-old admitted not having any St Johnstone supporters inside the stadium due to the coronavirus pandemic was disappointing, but he stressed it wouldn’t stop the team from enjoying their triumph.
“No fans changes things as we needed to create our own atmosphere,” he said. “That’s why I’m in the changing room with a microphone singing the tunes!
“It’s hard to celebrate later, the moment is sort of gone.
It’s a bit like Liverpool when they won the league. When everything went back to normal it’s as though they haven’t won it when they have. It’ll be exactly the same for Rangers, even though I hate to say it.
“We just need to enjoy the night and enjoy the occasion. Nothing will take the shine off of this, we have worked hard throughout this entire tournament.”
Rooney revealed how St Johnstone, who had inflicted a rare defeat on Livingston at the Tony Macaroni Stadium in the Premiership at the start of last month, had gone into the final with a simple objective.
“When you play Livingston, you need to throw any thoughts of a game plan out of the window,” he said. “We didn’t really have a game plan, it was all about the fight, a fight for everything.
“It was about working harder than them. We’ve done that against them. That’s paid off twice.
“It was a bit of a nervous start. Livingston came out and played balls over the top and they were fighting for everything, but we were equal to that.
“They had us penned in for a bit, but once we got past that we scored our goal and from then on they didn’t have as many chances. It was a bit like the semi-final against Hibs. The second half was an open game, but I felt we did enough. Both teams gave everything they had.
“The manager deserves a lot of credit for the win – but he could have put me in the side earlier! Seriously, though, I just thank him for the opportunities he’s given me.”
It feels absolutely amazing. You couldn’t write it
MANAGER David Martindale last night vowed not to let losing the Betfred Cup final to St Johnstone damage Livingston’s bid to secure a European place this season.
Martindale’s side conceded a Shaun Rooney goal in the first half of a tight game at Hampden yesterday and were unable to get back on level terms.
However, the West Lothian outfit are fifth in the Premiership and have a chance of securing a spot in the second qualifying round of the Europa Conference League.
Their manager, who was only appointed in November following the resignation of Gary Holt, is determined not to let the painful loss derail their campaign.
“When you lose a cup final you are going to be bitterly disappointed,” he said. “But I think you have to be positive in defeat and all credit goes to St Johnstone. They defended their box far better than we defended our box at times.
“There was a chance for
Josh Mullin. But I can’t really remember us putting Zander Clark under too much pressure to be honest.
“I could probably say that for both teams. I don’t think Robby [Livingston goalkeeper McCrorie] had too much to do other than pick the ball out of the net.
“I am disappointed, but I’m not going to let it affect me.
You can’t change the past, it’s gone. I will self-reflect and see what I could have done better.
“We’ve still a massive amount of football to play and a fantastic opportunity as a club to push for the top six and try for a European slot.
“It’s definitely not going to define my season and I can guarantee you I’ll not let it define the boys’ season. I will not let those boys dwell on this. I’m not going to dwell on it.
“This could go one of two ways. We could finish in the top six or finish seventh or eighth. I won’t take anything from it until we get to the end of the season.”
Martindale absolved Jon Guthrie from any blame for the loss after he allowed St Johnstone right-back Rooney to get on the end of a Craig Conway corner and head beyond McCrorie.
“You have to give big Shaun credit,” he said. “He is really difficult to mark from setplays and I thought he took his goal extremely well. When it comes to a set-play we’ve got to defend our box better.
“Big Guthrie was on him and has been magnificent this year. I said to him, ‘big man get your head up, how many games have your goals won us this year?’
“We are generally quite good at set-plays, but again I will give St Johnstone credit.
“You have to give St Johnstone plaudits and they have to take a massive amount of credit for the way they managed the game.”
Martindale, who has served time in prison for drug dealing and money laundering and was only passed as a fit and proper person by the SFA in January, admitted reaching a cup final has made him eager so savour the experience again.
“That’s what a cup final does,” he said. “As a player they don’t always come around. As a coach they don’t come around often.
“Hampden would be a fantastic stadium to come back to with fans in it.
“It’s not easy, but it’s something I would like to replicate in the future. The boys have done great to get here and should take a lot of credit for getting the club to a cup final.”
You can’t change the past, it’s gone. I’m not going to dwell on it
CELTIC edged out Aberdeen for the second time in 10 days on Saturday to give John Kennedy a 1-0 win in his first match as interim manager. Here are five talking points as Aberdeen failed to find the net once again...
How did John Kennedy fare in his audition?
If the rest of this season is one long job interview for interim manager Kennedy, then he has answered the first question asked of him in fairly solid if unspectacular fashion. The challenge now is for him to use the time he has to put his own stamp on this faltering Celtic side.
There was little discernible difference in terms of formation and tactics, which is perhaps understandable given Neil Lennon only left his post a matter of days before the match, and there was in fact little discernible difference between the performance and outcome from when Lennon led Celtic to a 1-0 win here over Aberdeen 10 days previously.
He did put his own stamp on the front line, handing Patryk Klimala a surprise start in attack, just his fifth for the club.
Other than that though, it was very much “meet the new boss, same as the old boss”, and Kennedy will have to show he can improve this team in the coming weeks to have any chance of holding on to the top job at Celtic Park.
Is Patryk Klimala good enough for Celtic?
There is no doubting that Klimala desperately wants to be a success at Celtic, and he is said to work just as hard behind the scenes to make that happen as he does when he is handed a rare opportunity to impress, as he was here.
The trouble is, while he can’t be faulted for effort, there still appears to be huge question marks over whether he has the level of talent required to cut it at this level.
Perhaps the fairer question is whether he fits into Celtic’s style of play. Kennedy explained that he started against Aberdeen because of his pace, and theoretically he would thrive if he was given balls in behind the opposing defence to utilise his greatest asset.
However, he is often asked to come towards the ball and hold it up playing against deeplying back lines, nullifying his stand-out quality.
Maybe the questions being asked then should be aimed at the recruitment department for laying out £3 million on him in the first place. But perhaps Kennedy has a plan to get the most of out of the young Pole, who has so far failed to justify that outlay.
Does Scott Brown have another season left in the tank?
The Celtic captain seems to have been fielding questions about his imminent retiral for years, and on Saturday he produced one of those performances that must make him think that he still has a fair bit left to offer.
Brown dominated the midfield from start to finish, but was especially key in the second half as he broke up play and stymied Aberdeen as they tried to get a foothold back in the game.
He will no doubt be the first to admit that there have been times this season where the standard of his performances fell far below this level, and he deservedly lost his place in the side to Ismaila Soro in October as he began to look every one of his 35 years.
The question for him after the club offered him a further year on the playing staff is whether he can still contribute to the required level on a consistent enough basis to merit it, or whether his undoubted influence off the field makes the summer an opportune time to move on to the coaching side.
Either way, as his teammates regularly insist, he would be a huge loss to Celtic should he leave the club altogether.
Celtic’s defensive frailties still unaddressed
For all that there is certainly promise in the developing partnership at centre-back between young Stephen Welsh and Kristoffer Ajer, and for all that Kennedy was right to praise Ajer in particular postmatch after a solid display, Celtic’s inability to properly defend set-plays remains a conspicuous weakness.
They were fortunate here that Ash Taylor failed to convert three more than presentable opportunities, with Scott Bain producing a wonderful save from the second of those, tipping over the Aberdeen defender’s free header from close range.
That Kennedy is a former centre-half himself has only puzzled Celtic fans further that such a glaring weakness has not been addressed, and until it is, opposition teams will continue to profit from their lax defending.
Blunt Aberdeen devoid of creative spark
Luckily for Celtic, Aberdeen failed to make the most of the chances they created from set-plays, and it seems the Dons are not really capable of creating opportunities in any other fashion.
They have now failed to score in seven of their last eight matches, with Callum Hendry’s goal against Kilmarnock – a
header from a free-kick – the only time they have found the net in that dismal run.
Despite an improved showing after the break here, and despite Florian Kamberi looking bright enough, Derek McInnes’ side still looked blunt in attack and devoid of creativity in open play.
If their goalscoring statistics are a damning indictment of where this Aberdeen side are, then so too is the 19-point gap that exists between them in fourth place and this struggling Celtic outfit in second.