Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Allan’s tip for Saints
Arbroath manager Allan Moore will be back at the McDiarmid Park home of St Johnstone he graced so well as a player when he takes part in a question-and-answer session prior to the Motherwell league game on Friday night.
And he’s hoping by then his old club have got themselves into the semi-finals of the League Cup for the second successive season.
To do that, they must account for Rangers at Ibrox tonight — and Allan feels Saints can do it.
“Rangers may be a league below Saints but they are a big club and Saints will raise their game against them,” said Allan just prior to taking his top of the table League Two Arbroath side training in Perth last night.
“When I was at St Johnstone and we played the Old Firm, our management duo of Alex Totten and Bert Paton instilled in us the fact that we shouldn’t fear Rangers or Celtic — and we proved that by beating them.
“Saints have no reason to fear Rangers tonight and they should go there with a winning mindset.
“They have done well in cup competitions in the last few seasons. Winning the Scottish Cup last season was proof of that and a victory at Ibrox tonight takes them into another semi-final.
“I once scored a hat-trick of headers for Saints in a 5-2 Scottish Cup win at McDiarmid against Ayr and that’s a memory that may be recalled on Friday night. Hopefully, for Saints there will be more happy memories from tonight to talk about.”
The Perth men fielded a young side in last night’s 1-0 home Development League defeat against Motherwell. The visitors included Lee Erwin, Stuart Carswell, Craig Moore and Bob McHugh, all with a fair bit of top-team experience, in their line-up.