Ali could face brother in last-eight clash
Bragging rights are on the line in the McCann household.
And Saints midfielder Ali wants to be the one celebrating a Betfred Cup semi-final spot instead of brother and Dunfermline forward Lewis.
The teams meet at East End Park in the last eight on Tuesday evening with a place at Hampden up for grabs.
“I think Lewis came on at the weekend,”Ali told the PA.“He has been getting on occasionally.
“I’ve never played against him before but have played with him for Northern Ireland under-21s.
“It would be pretty cool to come up against him if we both play.
“I’ve not actually watched him in ages so don’t know what he’d be like to play against.
“It’s one for bragging rights in the family so we need to beat them.
“But there is plenty of other motivation other than just having bragging rights over my brother. If we get through it’s a national semi-final and that would be brilliant.”
Ali was only a young lad in the Perth club’s academy when Saints stormed to Scottish Cup silverware back in 2014.
Now he wants to be part of another success story.
Ali said:“I was at the Scottish Cup final. I think I was around 14 and the club gave us tickets and put on a bus down to Celtic Park.
“That was great watching it as a player in the academy. It would be amazing to be involved in something like that. A couple of the current squad were involved back then. They know all about it and will be driving everyone forward to experience it.”
Saints will need to perform better than they did on Saturday afternoon against Livingston to ensure progression beyond Dunfermline.
And Ali said:“It was quite poor to be honest and I’m disappointed with how we played.
“Obviously it’s a bad result, losing at home and losing our unbeaten