Holt hopes for a timely Hampden victory
Former Rangers and Hearts man up for third time lucky
JASON HOLT knows full well what it is like to lose a cup final, to watch opponents revel in victory and make history for their clubs.
After bitter disappointments with Rangers and Hearts, he is in no mood to endure a hattrick of regrets with Livingston this weekend.
The midfielder was a late substitute for Hearts when they lost 3-2 to St Mirren in the 2013 League Cup final. Three years later, he was on the wrong end of the same score as Rangers succumbed to Hibernian in the dramatic Scottish Cup final of 2016.
Given he has played almost 200 times for those clubs from the upper reaches of the Scottish game, it would be ironic, then, if he were to finally get his hands on a major cup winner’s medal with ‘lowly’ Livingston.
The West Lothian outfit may be viewed by many as unfashionable and their perceived style of play unloved by some, but Holt is convinced the Lions can provide him with his moment of glory in Sunday’s Betfred Cup final against St Johnstone.
“It’s a final and you need your full focus for 90 minutes, 120 minutes or however long it takes,” he said as Livi attempt to emulate the CIS Cup final triumph of 2004. “All the boys are aware of that.
“It’s something to look forward to. For a lot of boys it might be the only chance they get to play in a cup final. So we need to grab it with both hands and make the most of it. I think you just need to embrace the occasion. Take it all in but don’t let it pass you by. That is probably the biggest thing.
“From 2016 with Rangers, the disappointment and hurt, I suppose, of losing a cup final was certainly really hard to take. I was massively disappointed so I just want to make sure that I don’t feel like that again. It was horrible so I want to be on the right end of things on Sunday.
“For 2013 with Hearts, I just remember the occasion, the build up, it is cup final week and there is a bit of a buzz. Then, obviously, the final itself, it was just a massive disappointment that you come out on the wrong end. I want to do everything in my power to win this time.”
Holt confesses cup finals were not necessarily uppermost in his mind when he joined Livingston last
summer. The switch came after he was released by Rangers in the wake of a loan spell with Sunday’s opponents, St Johnstone.
That stint in Perth means he knows enough about some of the personnel who now stand between him and silverware at Hampden to realise the Lions will need to be at their best to have a chance of victory.
Only Rangers and Celtic have got the better of the Saints in their last 11 matches, whilst Livi have not won in three after going on a 14-game unbeaten streak under David Martindale.
“Listen, we know how difficult this is going to be,” Holt admitted.
“St Johnstone are in good form themselves right now.
So, that’s going to make for a really close game. They’re a really good side. We have obviously already played them three times, and all three have been tough matches, pretty even. Most recently they came here and beat us [2-1].
“So we know how much of a threat they pose and we need to prepare for that. Both teams will go in with confidence and that should make for a good final.
“It’s a chance to make history for the club so we will do our all, we will make sure we prepare properly. It would certainly be a massive achievement for the club.
“The win in 2004 was so big and you are constantly seeing photographs on the walls and it was an amazing achievement. The journey that Livingston have come on, to potentially win a cup would probably top it off.
“If we were to be the squad that could win a cup for Livingston, then it is something that you can be immensely proud of. We will be doing everything we can to try to make that happen.”
We know just how difficult this will be
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JOSE MOURINHO says it is “amazing” to have Dele Alli back to his best after he scored a brilliant overhead kick and set up two goals in Tottenham’s 4-0 Europa League win over Wolfsberger.
Alli scored a special opener in the 10th minute and then set up both Carlos Vinicius, who added a late second, and Gareth Bale as Spurs made it through to the last 16 with an 8-1 aggregate victory over the Austrian side.
It has been a difficult season for Alli, having been frozen out by Mourinho, but he enjoyed the best night of his reintegration to the squad following a failed
January transfer window exit. There is some mitigation in the fact he was playing against the lowest-ranked opposition left in the Europa League, but it is a big step forward and Mourinho is excited by the potential.
“The goal I don’t need to speak, because everyone watched it and I believe that all around the world on all these sports TV, people are going to watch it, no need to talk about it,” Mourinho said. “But for me the globality of the performance is what matters.
“He played very well in every aspect of the game, he played very well. Of course he’s not fresh, of course you can feel that his performance like in the first leg from minute 55-60 is going to go down, which is normal due to the circumstances – injured, not training for a long time.”
RORY McIlroy believes thoughts of Tiger Woods resuming his career following his horrifying car accident should not be “even on the map at this point”.
Woods underwent surgery on significant injuries to his right leg after the singlevehicle accident in Los Angeles on Tuesday morning.
A statement on his website said the 15-time major winner was “responsive and recovering in his hospital room” following the operation where open fractures to his tibia and fibula and further injuries to his foot and ankle were stabilised with the insertion of a rod, screws and pins.
The severity of the injuries has inevitability raised questions about whether Woods will be able to return to competitive action, but
McIlroy’s concerns lay elsewhere.
Asked if Woods, who was already sidelined following a fifth back operation, could recover, McIlroy said: “He’s not Superman, he’s a human being at the end of the day and he’s already been through so much so at this stage everyone should just be grateful that he’s here, he’s alive, that his kids haven’t lost their dad.
“That’s the most important thing. Golf is so far from the equation right now. It’s not even on the map at this point.
“I think we’re all sort of heading towards that day that Tiger wasn’t going to be a part of the game. I’m not saying that that was soon. Before this accident, he was rehabbing a back injury and hopefully going to come back and play this year.
“Hopefully he comes back and is able to play, but if he’s not, I think he’ll still be a part of the game in some way, whether it’s obviously his design business and his foundation and hosting golf tournaments.
“It might be the end of seeing the genius at work with a club in his hand, but there’s still a lot of other ways that he can affect the game in a great way.”
World No.1 Dustin Johnson hopes Woods can complete a Ben Hogan-style comeback from the accident.
Hogan recovered from a near-fatal crash with a bus in 1949 to win six of his nine major titles.
He said: “Hate to see the news about Tiger. Wishing him a quick recovery and a Ben Hogan style comeback. If anyone can do it, it’s TW.”
STEPHEN Hendry’s comeback opponent Matthew Selt has warned the record seven-time world champion he risks tarnishing his reputation as he prepares for his first professional match in nine years at the Gibraltar Open.
Hendry is adamant he has “no expectations” ahead of his return in Milton Keynes next Tuesday, when he will face Selt, with whom he has been firm friends since they met during a trip to the Shanghai Masters in 2009.
Despite frequently playing golf together and speaking “almost every day”, Selt admits he doesn’t know why the 52-year-old has taken the decision to embark on his unlikely comeback bid.
Selt told the PA news agency: “For someone who dominated the game like he did for 10 years, to make a comeback in the knowledge that he will probably not be able to play to that standard again begs the question of why he is putting himself through it.
“It a question I’ve asked and I haven’t had a satisfactory answer. I can’t quite get my head around it but it deserves
unbelievable respect because ultimately he is putting his legacy back in the firing line to be shot down.
“What Stephen is trying to do is a massive step for him. I genuinely hope he enjoys his comeback – if he’s going to get upset at losing he shouldn’t be doing it, but if he’s going to enjoy playing and practising, then everyone in snooker is going to benefit from it.”
Hendry accepted a two-year tour card from World Snooker Tour chairman Barry Hearn in September last year but pulled out of a succession of projected comeback dates, citing his desire not to be “embarrassed”
upon his eventual return.
Hendry certainly faces a battle to make an impression, with world No.1 Judd Trump describing his move as a “strange one” while Ronnie O’Sullivan warned he will be plunged into a “rat race”.
Hendry, who retired after a 13-2 loss to Stephen Maguire in the quarter-finals of the 2012 World Championship, told ITV4: “We’re very good friends and I’m looking forward to it. I’m curious to see what will happen and I’m prepared for any result.
“On the practice table I’m probably hitting the ball better than I did when I retired but
that means nothing when you go out there.
“You’ve got to get that composure on the match table and that’s what might take a wee while.
“I’ve got no expectations of what will happen but we will see.”
Elsewhere, Jordan Brown was served a painful reminder of the reality of top-level snooker after being whitewashed by John Higgins in the first round of the Players Championship in Milton Keynes.
The 33-year-old was thumped 6-0 by the veteran Scot.