DAVID IS A CLASS ACT Saints ace aims to inspire schoolchildren
David Wotherspoon is playing his part to inspire the next generation.
And he hopes reaching out to kids in the local community can help spark or continue their love of all things St Johnstone.
The Perth midfielder this week spoke to children at Letham Primary School as part of the club’s virtual school visit programme, in partnership with Aviva.
And Wotherspoon said: “The kids were able to ask a few questions and they seemed pretty happy with that.
“It was nice to hear them full of excitement, especially leading up to Christmas as well. It was a joy to hear. The kids appreciate it and I’m sure they would be speaking about it with all their friends and family. It’s nice to be part of it and at the same time I really appreciated them listening to me.
“To inspire the young kids, you want to give them as much advice as you can. I’m one of the more experienced ones now so it’s nice to be able to give them some feedback.
“One of the questions was: ‘How long have you been playing in the Premiership?’ It’s 11 years and that is probably older than most of them.
“It puts it all in perspective for me as well.”
Wotherspoon, who grew up in Bridge of Earn, remembers how star-struck he used to be when in the presence of a professional player.
“I remember being in that age group when I was playing cub football,” he told the PA.
“You would maybe get a player along to present your end of season trophies and you would be amazed.
“You wanted to know who it was and get their signature. There is a real excitement about it all.”
There is also real excitement about how Saints are performing on the field of play.
A deserved 1-1 draw with Celtic on Sunday past continued the feel-good factor at the club ahead of tomorrow’s home match with Livingston.
Saints sit eighth in the Scottish Premiership and two points better off than their visitors.
Wotherspoon said: “It was a great result for us at Celtic but I think we were all a little disappointed not to get three points considering how the game went. It’s not very often you get a point at Parkhead so we were still happy.
“We need to keep going because it’s still a very tight league.
“We always want to set our own standards with the level of performance and the results.
“We want to get up that table and we believe that we can. We’ll look to start that off by getting three points against Livingston.
“It’s a big game for us having been beaten by them earlier in the season.”
“We’ll be trying our hardest and we’ll see what happens from that.”
Jeanfield came up against their Lowland League opponents at the beginning of the season, winning 3-1 in a friendly.
Since then Swifts have gone unbeaten in their East of Scotland Premier Division campaign and that has boosted confidence.
Scott, however, realises how difficult tomorrow’s preliminary round two tie will be.
He told the PA: “I played against Stirling in the friendly and they are a very good team.
“They were very organised, good on the ball and on the counter.
“I think we might actually be put down as favourites, even though they are in the league above. But of course it will be a tough game.
“We have really good quality in the team, especially this year. We’re all hoping we can win and get into the next round.
“We’re a confident bunch at the moment both individually and as a team.
“We’re unbeaten in the leagues and the cups.”