Saints demolish the Bully Wee as double cup dream lives on
ST JOHNSTONE 2 Melamed (6), O’halloran (21) CLYDE 0
ST JOHNSTONE: (3-4-3) Parish 7; Mccart 7, Gordon 7, Kerr 7; Tanser 7, Craig 7 (Mccann 79, 2), Wotherspoon 8 (Gilmour 67 4), Brown 7; May 7, Melamed 7 (Middleton 71, 4), O’halloran 7. Subs not used – Clark, Booth, Rooney, Bryson, Kane, Ferguson.
CLYDE:
(4-5-1) Vajs 6; Otoo 5, Mcniff 5, Howie 5, Bain 5; Cunningham 5 (Ritchie-hosler 64, 4), Robertson 5, Thomson 5, Lamont 5 (Jamieson 71, 6), Munro 5, (Butterworth 56, 4); Jack 5. Subs not used – Mitchell, Love, Goodwillie, Nicole, Rumsby, Ritchie-hosler.
ST JOHNSTONE midfielder David Wotherspoon insists he is desperate to add to his cup winners medal tally and then help Canada qualify for the World Cup finals. Wotherspoon already has a League Cup winner’s gong after Saints’ triumph against Livingston at Hampden earlier last month. Goals by Guy Melamed and Michael O’halloran kept Saints on course for a unprecedented domestic cup double as the Premiership side easily saw off League One outfit Clyde 2-0 at Mcdiarmid Park to book their passage into the quarter-final. Wotherspoon, who turned in an impressive performance, said: “Things are going really well at both club and international level.
“We are all hungry to achieve more success for this football club and we have won the League Cup and we are into the quarter-final of the Scottish Cup and we are still aiming to finish higher in the Premiership.
“I would love to add to my cup winner’s medal collection and I do look at my League Cup medal and of course it would be a massive achievement for the club to do something like that again.
“We are in the next round and we have either Rangers or Celtic and we will just see who we draw and sometimes you have to do it the hard way and beat the best if you are to succeed.
“To reach the World Cup finals with Canada would be fantastic but there is a long way to go but that would be great to be involved in something like that as you want to play at the highest level and I will keep pushing for that as much as I can and I hope to be in that squad.” It was the home side who raced out of the starting blocks when they took the lead in the sixth minute. Wotherspoon neatly fed O’halloran, who advanced down the left-hand side and pulled the ball back into the path of Guy Melamed, who tapped home from close range with his left foot.
The hosts doubled their lead on 21 minutes when May picked up the ball after some slack play by Clyde saw May pick up and he released O’halloran who sprinted clean in on goal and the former Rangers star produced a clinical low finish with his left foot as he confidently slotted past Vajs to make it 2-0.
Wotherspoon then floated over a corner on 67 minutes that saw
Melamed crash a header off the crossbar.
Clyde thought they had gained a lifeline in the contest when substitute Jamieson rolled the ball into the net on 77 minutes after Liam Gordon and Parish got their wires crossed. But their blushes were saved when it was flagged offside.
It was the Saints who go marching on and their reward is a mouth-watering last-eight clash against the winners of today’s Scottish Cup cracker between Rangers and Celtic at Ibrox.
Saints boss Callum Davidson admitted he was not fussed which Glasgow side he faces. “It’s a job well done. I’ve not got a preference, but I’ll go and watch it. I’ll look forward to whoever we play,” he said. Clyde manager Danny Lennon reckoned his side had been badly hit by their recent hectic fixture schedule.
Lennon said: “That’s the fourth Thursday in a row we’ve had to play.
“I’m not getting the violin out but I just feel the lower league clubs have been really shafted here in terms of the demands placed upon us.
“The SFA even wanted us to kick off today at 11.45am against a full-time team who’ve had a full week’s build-up when we’ve played Saturday, Tuesday, Thursday and now Saturday. So I have to thank Callum for agreeing to the 5.30pm kick-off.”