Davidson proud of players as St Johnstone shine at Hampden

St Johnstone manager Callum Davidson hailed his “brilliant” players after they thumped Hibs 3-0 to reach the Betfred Cup final.

The Perth side weathered the storm in the early stages of the semi-final at Hampden before goals from Jason Kerr, Shaun Rooney and Craig Conway put Saints through to the final, where they will face Livingston or St Mirren.

Davidson said his players had delivered on the big occasion and would now aim to take the final step and lift the trophy.

“I’m really proud of the players,” he said. “I’m happy for the club and for the supporters, albeit they couldn’t be here.

“It gives some sort of cheer in these difficult times.

“Hopefully the people of Perth and supporters around the world can tune in to the final and hopefully we can give them something to cheer about then.

“When the Old Firm fall out the competition you have got to try and take a chance. All we have done is give ourselves the chance to win the trophy.

“I said that to the players, we were brilliant, enjoy it, but make sure when we go to the final you win the cup.”

HIbernian had showed early promise and created chances but Davidson saw his side deal with what was thrown at them and then punish their opposition with two well-executed set pieces.

“I think after the first 30 minutes I thought we might not get there and Hibs were excellent,” the Saints boss said. “We rode our luck a little bit.

“Once we settled down a little bit I thought the boys were brilliant. Especially second half they were at a really high level and saw out the game really well.

“I was nice because a number of times this season we’ve been playing well but have been knocked out with the sucker punch. Today it was nice to do it the other way around.

“Once we got the goal that settled us. In the second half I thought we moved the ball really well and defended really well. Hibs are a good attacking team but we managed to get through to the final.”

Hibs head coach Jack Ross admitted he was mroe than unhappy with his players’ attitude with a huge opportunity in front of them.

“I’m angry at the manner in which we played in the last 35 minutes,” he said. “We were far too meek in terms of taking an opportunity to get to a final.

“To balance that out, I thought we were good first half and didn’t deserve to be behind. But we were, so we had to retain our discipline in all aspects of our game and we didn’t do that.

“We spoke at half-time about continuing to do the same things because we had created a lot. But we didn’t because our reaction to conceding the second goal was nowhere near good enough.

“At two you still have a decent opportunity but we conceded the third because we got so ragged in our play and then it gets incredibly difficult.”