O’halloran can inspire Saints to famous win

St Johnstone will be the underdogs in their Betfred Cup semi-final against Hibs and Courier Sport reporter Eric Nicolson analyses what Callum Davidson and his players have to get right to upset the odds.

We’ve got two young managers coming up against each other who are big on their tactics and systems. Callum Davidson and Jack Ross will both put a lot of thought into the formations they deploy at Hampden Park. What will the Saints boss do?

Davidson has long since settled on his favoured formation at the back. Even when he has been without one or more of his regular central defenders, the three in the middle set-up hasn’t changed. And he’s not about to have a back-four conversion for a cup semi-final.

Scott Tanser will play to the left of Jamie Mccart, Liam Gordon and Jason Kerr and, unless James Brown has trained incredibly well this week, Shaun Rooney will be the right wing-back.

The intrigue is to be found in whether Davidson goes with two in central midfield and his arrow up front, or three in the middle and two forwards.

The physical midfield strength Hibs possess (they went with a three in their last game against Kilmarnock) would be one reason I’d choose to match-up numerically in that area.

The other reason would be it has the knock-on consequence of sticking with an attacking combination that has gelled quickly and produced three goals and two good results.

● Where do Saints have to raise their game from last weekend to succeed?

I’ve mentioned midfield but Saturday was a rare off day in that department. I’ll be amazed if there isn’t a big improvement.

More pertinent is will the wing-backs will be able to impact the game as Davidson needs them to?

Rooney was signed by Tommy Wright as a rightback but, ironically, he now looks better suited to right centre-back in Davidson’s three.

He can’t be expected to reach Danny Mcnamara’s standard of pass and move football excellence but there is great importance on Rooney making the correct decisions when he’s in the final third of the pitch.

On the other side, it’s over a month since Scott Tanser was at his best.

Saints are strongly favouring the left with their attacks since Mcnamara returned to Millwall – that trend was actually developing before his departure – so the onus on the Englishman to pick out Kane, Melamed and Wotherspoon is higher than on Rooney.

Tanser and Rooney were numbers one and three in terms of touches of the ball for Saints against St Mirren yet neither of them registered a ‘good open play cross’ in the whole match as defined by Opta.

Tanser v Paul Mcginn and Rooney v Josh Doig are winnable head-to-heads for Saints and can define this semi-final.

● What else could tip the balance in Saints’ favour at Hampden?

The return of Jason Kerr for starters.

There’s obviously the fact that in Davidson’s words, ‘he’s my captain and he’s my leader’.

But, specifically with Hibs in mind, he’s a player whose forward darts in the first match between these teams at Mcdiarmid Park had the opposition players (and Ross, who tried to alter his formation and personnel to negate them) perplexed.

Kerr stuck predominantly to his defensive duties on his comeback against St Mirren, particularly when there was a one-goal lead to protect, but expect him to step into midfield and beyond more regularly in this game.

The channel between Doig and Paul Hanlon is ripe for exploiting and Kerr can be an important weapon in doing so.

● If this semi-final is going to be as tight as many are predicting, who can Saints expect to come off the bench and win it for them?

Michael O’halloran. Expect might be putting it a bit strong so I’ll restrain myself to hope.

If there’s one player who has the skillset to transform this Saints team from good to very good, it’s O’halloran.

Davidson can find other ways to make his system work but it would be a lot easier with raw pace.

In theory, O’halloran should be perfect for this side.

The last time Saints faced Hibs in a semi-final was the last time O’halloran played for the Perth club in his first spell before being sold to Rangers the day after.

He was the talisman of that 2015-16 team and his performance at Tynecastle, perhaps understandably given the inevitability of his deadline day transfer, was a huge anti-climax.

It’s Hibs again. It’s the League Cup last four again. A Michael O’halloraninspired St Johnstone win would have perfect symmetry to it.

Michael O’halloran.

Shaun Rooney.