Saints supporters 'will always remember cup winning teams'

Callum Davidson acknowledged the significance of cup glory to St Johnstone before their League Cup semi-final against Hibernian at Hampden Park on Saturday.

Davidson was the assistant manager to Tommy Wright in 2014 when the Perth side won the Scottish Cup for the first time, ensuring a place in the club’s history for all the players and staff involved.

Having taken over the role from Wright last summer, the former Saints defender is just 90 minutes away from a final appearance and the chance for St Johnstone to secure the league cup trophy for the first time following showpiece defeats by Celtic in 1969 and Rangers in 1998.

“It is what people remember,” said Davidson. “People remember Scottish Cup final winners, they remember these types of things.

“Players are exactly the same. You remember top-six finishes which are great but you remember the big occasions more and these finals and semi-finals are the occasions you remember.

“Again, it is a pity the supporters are not there because that obviously makes a huge difference to what you remember.

“I am not going to overegg or overemphasise it to the players, they just know they need to win.

“Clubs like St Johnstone don’t get there that often. I want the players to go and play with confidence and an energy and enthusiasm to try to get there.”

With neither Old Firm club in the semi-finals, the prospect of a cup final win has opened up to St Johnstone, Hibernian, St Mirren and Livingston, with the latter clubs contesting the other semi-final on Sunday.

Davidson said: “All four teams will be thinking there is a chance because the two biggest teams in the country are out and they have probably have dominated the cup competitions… well, Celtic have for the last four years and Rangers are at a high level.

“There is a wee bit of hope but I just hope we perform on Saturday and it gives us an opportunity later on in the season.

“When we won the Scottish Cup it was the first time in our history, obviously a big thing.

“I left before the club got to the final in 1998 so it would be nice to get them through to the final and give the people of Perth and fans of St Johnstone around the world the chance to enjoy the occasion, as much as they can in this current time.”

Davidson would not get involved in the spat between the Perth club and Neil Lennon.

St Johnstone hit back on Tuesday at the Celtic manager’s claims about their coronavirus protocols.

Lennon had said: “We go to St Johnstone, all crammed into a little dressing room,” but in a statement the McDiarmid Park club described the comments as “inaccurate and unfounded”.

Davidson said: “The statement speaks for itself. It is probably something I don’t want to get involved with. We put a statement out to correct any wrongs.

“We work very hard to meet the protocols which is difficult. We try to do our best to always do that and the statement shuts the door on it.”