BLUE BEAUTY
St Johnstone end 137-year wait to lift League Cup as Davidson’s men edge Livingston at Hampden
LIVINGSTON . . . . . . . 0 ST JOHNSTONE. . .1
ATENNIS protege growing up, as well as a scratch golfer, Callum Davidson can’t claim to be the most gifted of Judy Murray’s former pupils.
He chose football in the end and St Johnstone fans can be glad that he did after the former Scotland defender added his name to a growing list of major title winners from Dunblane.
Davidson’s first trophy in management comes just eight months after his appointment as successor to Tommy Wright. At time up, he was remarkably laid back about the whole business. For some people, sporting excellence is a simple fact of life.
‘I’m not an emotional person,’ he admitted. ‘I’m pretty level. I think it’s just the achievement and seeing the joy on the players’ faces and the backroom staff and the people upstairs and the board, everyone involved in the club.
‘That’s when it hits home that it means so much to them as well.
‘I’m out on the forefront working hard as the face of it, but I have six or seven backroom staff working unbelievably hard and I know how much it meant to them. Maybe that’s what makes it emotional for me.’
Since November 2016, Scottish football has grown wearily accustomed to the sight of Scott Brown lifting trophies.
The last time a team outwith Celtic won a domestic competition, Hibs ended their 114year wait for the Scottish Cup on a day of rampant over-exuberance.
In contrast, St Johnstone’s Betfred Cup triumph over Livingston at a deserted Hampden was a low-key affair. None of which alters the significance of the occasion.
Hero Shaun Rooney’s soaring first-half header finally shattered Celtic’s stranglehold on Scottish football. In the process, Davidson’s side asserted themselves as the second most successful team in the country over the last decade.
In that period, Kilmarnock, Hearts, St Mirren, Aberdeen, Inverness, Ross County and Hibs have all won a trophy apiece. The Scottish Cup of 2014 was St Johnstone’s first major trophy and, after 130 years without a cup of any description, two have come along in jig-time.
The narrative to this game was supposed to be David Martindale’s path to redemption. Granted the all-clear by the SFA despite a previous jail sentence for drug trafficking, the Betfred Cup would have proved the Livvy boss was not just a fit-and-proper person. He’d have been crowned a fit-and-proper manager.
In the opening half hour, Livingston had chances to make his case. Yet, as Hibs discovered in the semi-final, you have to make early domination against St Johnstone at Hampden count. If you don’t, there’s a heavy price to pay. Usually from the head of Rooney.
Until his stand-out display against Hibs in the semi-final, there were few fans in Scotland who could have picked the big defender out in an identity parade. Until now, his great grandfather Bob was better known as the physio of Celtic’s Lisbon Lions and the team who went on to overcome his Great Uncle Benny when St Johnstone lost their first League Cup final in 1969.
Barely even a first-team pick until Danny McNamara’s loan ended in the new year, Rooney scored in the quarter-final, won a man-of-the-match award in the semi-final with the second goal, and claimed the only goal as Saints won the cup. This, more than anything, was his story.
In the opening stages, it looked as likely to be the day for Livingston’s Scott Robinson to claim the headlines.
Martindale speaks of Robinson as the player who epitomises everything the club are about.
Three or four inches shorter than Saints defenders Liam Gordon and Jason Kerr, the striker played between the two — belying his lack of physique to be a relentless pain in the backside.
He created a wonderful chance for Efe Ambrose in the sixth minute when he nodded a long ball down to the feet of the veteran defender, who almost shanked the ball over the stands and into Lesser Hampden from all of ten yards out.
St Johnstone had keeper Zander Clark to thank for keeping the scoreline level 11 minutes later. A long ball forward was laid off by Robinson to Josh Mullin. The midfielder’s deft first touch created an opening and his powerful 20-yard drive was heading for the corner of the net until Clark produced a terrific fingertip save.
Saints hadn’t started the game well. Yet, when Hibs blew chance after chance in the semi, Perth skipper Kerr snatched a goal from a corner after 35 minutes. This time, they peaked three minutes earlier.
In a tactical switch, Martindale had moved defensive midfielder Marvin Bartley to the left side to track rampaging wing-back Rooney. Oddly, Jon Guthrie took on the role of marking the Saints No19 for Craig Conway’s outswinging corner — and lost him.
Rooney’s craning header struck the inside of the post and crept into the net beyond the despairing dive of Robby McCrorie for the breakthrough.
Refusing to blame his centre-half for the lapse, a philosophical Martindale said: ‘You have to give big Shaun Rooney credit. Big Guthrie was
on him and has been magnificent this year.
‘I said to him: “Big man, get your head up, how many games have your goals won us this year?”.’
Saints held the lead at half-time without being brilliant. They upped their game significantly after the break and should have won by more goals. In truth, it was a game lacking moments of genuine quality.
Saints should have extended their advantage four minutes into the second half. When Ali McCann’s driven cutback was lashed at goal by David Wotherspoon, McCrorie produced a fine instinct save. Even now, you wonder how striker Chris Kane failed to get something on the loose ball to turn it into the net from six yards out.
For the first time in the game, Livingston looked panicked. Kerr screamed for a penalty after a grappling match with Ambrose.
McCrorie was then caught in no-man’s land, losing his bearings as a Jamie McCart header stayed out of the net thanks to an Ambrose block. St Johnstone were incessant, their opponents rattled.
Desperate to extract a tune from his team, Martindale had to change it. His players had posed little or no second-half threat. The occasion getting to them, they lacked their usual aggression and menace
Craig Sibbald, Alan Forrest, Gavin Reilly and Jay EmmanuelThomas were all thrown on in search of a goal, yet Saints were dogged and worthy winners.
For clubs like St Johnstone, days like this are so rare, so precious, that a trophy presentation at an empty Hampden is a slightly tragic affair. With a game on Wednesday, boss Davidson has promised the people of Perth a shindig in June, when Covid restrictions ease up. Drink, you suspect, will be taken.