I’m not surprised by Jason... the guy has always been a winner
Thirty-five minutes were on the Hampden scoreboard and St Johnstone had just taken the lead against Hibernian.
Rising taller than anyone else was determined captain Jason Kerr. His header from a David Wotherspoon corner had power, accuracy and arrived at a time when Saints had their backs against the wall.
It started the ball rolling on what would turn out to be a momentous afternoon at the national stadium for all involved with the Perth club.
Sitting at home taking it all in was Kerr’s former youth coach at Tynecastle FC Douglas Ormston. He was proud, delighted and all the rest of it. But he wasn’t surprised.
Douglas had watched the now 24-year-old produce similar season after season at boys’ club level. He coached Kerr from the under-15 to under-17 age group before Saints came calling.
“Jason was a great goalscorer,” Douglas smiled. “I sent him a message after his semi-final saying that he’d been doing that since he was 14.
“It was a classic Jason goal. He used to score a lot from corners so it was no surprise when he scored the goal.”
Kerr’s earlier days at Tynecastle were spent patrolling the middle of the park and it’s a position he occasionally played when coming up through the ranks at McDiarmid Park.
But Douglas noticed an opportunity to shift him back into the centre of defence, which he did. It didn’t go down too well with Kerr’s mum Tracy.
“Jason came to Tynecastle at under12s and left to sign for St Johnstone at the end of under-17,” Douglas recalled.
“Much to the disdain of his mother, in his last season I moved him into centre-half. He had been a fantastic centre midfielder.
“His mum liked him playing further forward and didn’t want to see him