Booth sets sights on more glory at Hampden with St Johnstone
Callum Booth does not need to hold the League Cup aloft on Sunday to know how fortunate he is.
A Scottish Youth Cup winner with Hibernian in 2009, the St Johnstone left-back is one of only three members of that much-vaunted side still playing senior football.
Still only 29, it seems remarkable that so many of his team-mates have found making a living from the game to be a little more challenging, especially given their all-conquering status at the time. They all felt confident they would make the step up at Easter Road sooner rather than later.
“We played Rangers in the final – they had a good team as well – and we beat them 2-1,” recalled Booth. “We won the Under-19 league that season as well. It was a brilliant experience.
“Out of our team that won the league and cup double it’s just me, David (Wotherspoon) and Sean Welsh who are still in full-time football. We were the best in Scotland by some distance, so it shows how hard it is to make that step-up.
“I remember when the first team at Hibs was struggling, we all thought we should be playing but looking back now, you appreciate how big the jump is.”
While none of those still playing top-level football are doing so with Hibs, two of the three are at least playing for the same team. Booth and Wotherspoon have the chance of lifting more silverware this weekend for St Johnstone against Livingston at Hampbumps
den, where they are set to team up on the left flank. Booth has regained his left-back berth in recent weeks.
Both were left out of the side to play Hearts in the Scottish Cup final in 2012. Although he had already broken into the team during Colin Calderwood’s tenure, Booth did not feature at all in that ultimately doomed cup campaign under Pat Fenlon and was “shoved out” on loan to Sunday’s opponents Livingston the following
season. They might now reflect that it was a good one to miss – particularly Booth, who grew up a Hibs fan. A further tie to these early days at Hibs is the current St Johnstone youth coach Alistair Stevenson, who took the youth team to Hampden for that win over a Rangers side including Kane Hemmings and Danny Wilson.
Well regarded and wise, Stevenson will have warned his players there would be
and scrapes to come. Booth experienced his first great challenge at Livingston in the old First Division in 2012-13. At one point while there he considered quitting the game.
“It was not the best season shall we say,” he said. Booth played under three managers and felt he was losing his way. “My career had always been on the rise until then,” he said. “I was maybe 21 or 22 when I went to Livingston
and it had been all playing for Scotland Under 21s, Hibs’ first team and a new four-year deal…”
St Johnstone are his ninth club – and that’s not including Bury, where he didn’t even make an appearance because they went bankrupt just a few days after he signed. Such an experience helps grant perspective as he endures the agonising wait to hear if he has secured a cup final starting shirt for Sunday.