The Wright time for Perth glory
Saints boss’s masterplan for cup glory ends his club’s 130-year wait
and suspected then that his Perth men had what it would take to claim cup glory.
‘After the European games, we did think that we would be a difficult side to beat this season,’ said Wright. ‘In one-off games, I reckoned we would be a tough team.
‘I thought we had the potential to be a good cup team this season and that proved to be the case. There was a belief this could be our year. You have to play well and have a bit of Lady Luck on your side along the way. But put that in with belief and you have a recipe for success.
‘We moan when people say St Johnstone are under the radar — but we quite like it. It means we can get on with our job.
‘It is a football fairytale. That’s the beauty of the Scottish Cup. I know there will still be a full house at Wembley but I think the FA Cup TOMMY WRIGHT revealed he had belief in scripting the ‘football fairytale’ that is St Johnstone’s first-ever major trophy victory as long as 10 months ago.
Goals from Steven Anderson and Steven MacLean gave Saints a 2-0 win over Dundee United and the William Hill Scottish Cup at Celtic Park.
The silverware success was the first national trophy in the club’s 130-year history but had been planned by Wright only weeks into him taking the manager’s job.
He steered Saints past Rosenborg in the Europa League before exiting to FC Minsk has lost its magic — I don’t think the Scottish Cup has lost its magic. That is why, when everybody was wanting an Aberdeen and Dundee United final, I didn’t want it. I thought the real story was us and that has proved to be the point.’
Anderson’s header in first-half injury-time that sent Saints on their way also struck a blow for Wright’s planning. He had identified a weakness in United’s defence to aerial bombardment at dead-ball situations.
‘We worked on that,’ he said. ‘We’ve had joy from set-pieces against United. We work with good delivery and good attacking of the ball.
‘It was a good time to score because they came back into it a bit. And then scoring with eight minutes to go killed the game off.’