ROONEY’S NAME WAS ON THE CUP...
Final hero played in each and every round after emerging from the fringes with Saints
IT was certainly an unlikely location for the first chapter of what would become a footballing fairytale. When the story of St Johnstone’s epic Betfred Cup triumph is penned, the importance of a chilly autumn night at New Central Park, Kelty, will not be overlooked.
Back in October, the spartan Lowland League ground in Fife was not just the backdrop to the first win by Callum Davidson’s side in the competition. For Shaun Rooney, it was a rare window of opportunity.
As the wing-back danced with the League Cup on the Hampden turf yesterday, his winning header having brought him immortality in Perth, it was easy to forget that he cut a peripheral figure in the early weeks of the season.
Davidson’s Millwall connections had brought Danny McNamara to the club on loan and such was the pedigree of the Irishman that Rooney was left on the outside looking in.
To say he seized his chance in the cup would do him a huge disservice. It’s no exaggeration to state that those matches against Kelty, Brechin, Dundee United and Peterhead in the group stage redefined him.
It says much that Davidson
I just can’t hide the emotion. I want to thank my mum, who passed away
retained faith in him for the knockout games with Motherwell and Dunfermline despite the fact McNamara was still at the club.
A scorer against the Pars and in the semi-final win over Hibs, with the wing-back position by then his own, it appears there was just something about Rooney and this year’s competition that was simply meant to be.
‘I’ve played in every game of the Betfred,’ beamed the 24year-old. ‘I came to the club under Tommy Wright and I didn’t know what the new gaffer wanted from me.
‘He brought in Danny McNamara, who was excellent, and I had to bide my time.
‘I had the Betfred Cup games when he was away on international duty, so I have to thank the gaffer for playing me in those and the quarterfinal when Danny was fit and ready to play. He picked me to play and I scored a goal. ‘Danny was away by the semi-final against Hibs, so I could relax. ‘I tried as hard as I could to get into the team but that Kilmarnock game (at the start of the season) killed me a bit. I had to bounce back — and I did that. ‘The manager deserves a lot of credit, but he could have put me in the side earlier! I just thank him for the opportunities he has given me.’ As St Johnstone seemed to take over the World Wide Web last night, the face of the man they call the Bellshill Cafu was ubiquitous. Until yesterday, Steven Anderson and Steven MacLean were the only St Johnstone players to have scored in a winning cup final side.
Rooney now joins them, with the distinction of being the man who brought home the League Cup for the first time in the club’s history.
For a player who started out at Queen’s Park before journeying through places including Dunfermline and Inverness, life will never be the same again.
‘It feels absolutely amazing, you couldn’t write it,’ he said. ‘I’m delighted with the whole team performance. Everyone to a man was excellent today.’
His goal was testament to his desire and courage throughout. Brushing Jon Guthrie away in the game’s defining moment, he managed to generate an extraordinary amount of power in his header to beat Robby McCrorie in the Livingston goal.
‘He (Guthrie) was marking me tight but I gave him a bit of movement, a wee slip of the shoulder and I was away,’ he said. ‘That’s how it is in this world. It was a brilliant moment and I am absolutely delighted. It was a great header and I don’t know what their keeper was waving at (in protest).’
From that moment on, Saints looked comfortable. Cup finals can divide opinions but, on this occasion, there was unanimity. The better side by a distance got what they deserved.
‘We didn’t really have a game plan,’ Rooney insisted. ‘It was all about fighting for everything. It was about working harder than Livingston and doing whatever we could.’
It will be some time before the scale of the achievement — both personal and collective — fully sinks in.
Rooney’s immediate feelings of joy and relief were tinged with sadness that his mother Elizabeth, who died from cancer in 2019, wasn’t around to see it.
‘I can’t hide the emotion,’ he said. ‘I want to thank my mum. Obviously she has passed away but this is massive for my whole family. I think everyone in the family will have a tear in their eye but I’m absolutely buzzing.’
He is not the first member of the Rooney family to know success in the competition but is the first to do so as a player.
His great grandfather Bob was the Celtic physio in 1969 when Jock Stein’s side beat a Saints team containing Benny of the same name.
‘He’s my great uncle,’ said Rooney of the latter. ‘I don’t know if he watched it but I’m over the moon for myself and my family.
‘I heard stories from my great grandpa who was the physio at Celtic at the time and I hear the stories about the European Cup but I didn’t know he was as big as he actually is. My dad says he doesn’t drink on Sundays, so we will see if he had a drink today.’
Just because Perth was unable to party like 2014 last night didn’t prevent glasses being raised and tears being shed behind closed doors.
There will come a time, hopefully soon, when St Johnstone supporters will celebrate together — and in style.
Covid may have denied that pleasure for now but it cannot take away from the history that was made at Hampden yesterday.
‘Nothing will take the shine off of this,’ Rooney said. ‘We have worked hard throughout this entire tournament.
‘It’s hard to celebrate later as the moment is sort of gone.
‘It’s a bit like Liverpool when they won the league. When everything went back to normal, it’s as though they hadn’t won it when they had, and the fans need to remember that.
‘It’ll be exactly the same for Rangers (when they win the title), even though I hate to say it. We just need to enjoy the night and enjoy the occasion.’
McNamara is an excellent player, so when he came in, I had to bide my time