Perthshire Advertiser

Saints will strike silver if they bring A-game on Sunday

… says ex-defender Alan Kernaghan who played in 1998 final

- MATTHEW GALLAGHER

This current St Johnstone side deserve just as much credit as the 1998 cup final stars – if not more.

That was the message from former defender Alan Kernaghan ahead of this weekend’s national nail-biter at Hampden.

Kernaghan loved his four-year stint at Saints and is backing them to lift the League Cup against another of his previous clubs.

“I can’t say I’m surprised it’s taken so long for Saints to reach another League Cup final because it’s never easy getting that far in any competitio­n,” he said.

“It’s tough reaching a final. You need to have a lot of things going for you, including a bit of luck on your side.

“The current team deserve just as much respect as we got, if not more.

“Obviously it helps that they’re not playing Rangers or Celtic.

“It’s maybe not going to be billed as a big, high-profile final – the four semi-finalists would all have fancied their chances of going on to lift the cup.

“Livingston have been producing some great results, but so have Saints. It will be down to which side brings their A-game.

“I’ll certainly be supporting Saints. I was only at Livingston for a short time so I haven’t the same fondness for them.

“When Biscuits [Allan Preston] and I were there, it was probably a little bit too early for us.

“In hindsight, we didn’t have the experience to deal with exceptiona­l circumstan­ces and having to build a team in 20-odd days or whatever it was. We were up against it and probably didn’t realise it at the time.”

Kernaghan, now 53, lined-up for Saints against Rangers in the 1998 League Cup final.

Goals from Stéphane Guivarc’h and Jorg Albertz proved enough for the Ibrox side, despite a Nick Dasovic leveller early in the game.

“We were massive underdogs going into the final, like we were in most games around that time,” said Kernaghan.

“We had lost a league game 7-0 in Perth not long before when Kano [Paul Kane] was sent off.

“You just had to write that off and be ready to go again quickly.

“But we never feared games against Rangers and Celtic and that was shown with results that season.

“My first game for Saints was against Rangers the previous year when we lost 2-0. But we were a totally different team going into the final. We had a very different mindset.

“We were a lot more confident in ourselves and the way we played, despite that result at McDiarmid. That was a top-class Rangers team.

“You looked down the left side and they had Arthur Numan, Giovanni van Bronckhors­t and Jorg Albertz, all inter-changing, passing and moving. They played like Man City do now under Guardiola.

“That was down to the Dutch influence, with Dick Advocaat the manager.

“Their movement off the ball was superb and they had a real understand­ing of positional play.

“And that Rangers side had big characters like Barry Ferguson and Lorenzo Amoruso.”

Kernaghan added: “The plan was to camp in our own half and hit them on the break at some stage. We lost an early goal but fortunatel­y Nick quickly levelled it, otherwise we might have been in bother. We had good players, we were a proper team. That was our strength.

“We were all in it together, on and off the pitch. We enjoyed each other’s company away from football. That was the driving force for us.”

Kernaghan looks back on his Perth career with real fondness.

He said: “I had been brought through at Middlesbro­ugh, where everyone mucked in together.

“But at Manchester City there was none of that togetherne­ss, relying on your team-mate to help you out if you were having a tough time. That was missing there.

“But it was back to what I had been used to coming to Saints.

“Paul Sturrock did a lot of the groundwork and Sandy Clark added a bit on to it.

“Nathan Lowndes came in and he was pretty much the Jamie Vardy of our team in that era. He gave us legs to run beyond defenders.

“George O’Boyle was a great striker in and around the box and held the ball up with his back to goal. And Miguel Simao also gave us a bit of movement up top.

“I have great memories of my time in Perth.

“It was very much a purple patch for me.”

 ??  ?? Playing for the jersey Alan Kernaghan in his Saints days, and below, he celebrates with his team-mates after scoring a goal
Playing for the jersey Alan Kernaghan in his Saints days, and below, he celebrates with his team-mates after scoring a goal
 ??  ?? Brave Alan for Kernaghan Saints against Rangers in 1997
Brave Alan for Kernaghan Saints against Rangers in 1997

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