St Johnstone chairman Steve Brown has issued a rallying call to football fans of all persuasions in Perthshire and beyond to get right behind his side in their historic first Scottish Cup final against Dundee United next month.
What was already shaping up as a huge year for the region with the Ryder Cup being played at Gleneagles, became even more notable after Saints secured their place in Scottish football’s showpiece occasion for the first time in their history.
Around 3,200 fans travelled through to Ibrox last Sunday to witness the club’s superb 2-1 victory over Aberdeen.
However, when Saints played Rosenborg and Minsk in the Europa League qualifiers at home at the start of the season, there was an aggregate of 16,400 supporters packed into McDiarmid for the two games with the usual hard-core fan base boosted by followers of other clubs flocking in to see the ties.
Now, Brown is hoping for similar backing on May 17 in the final at Celtic Park.
Brown said: “It’s going to be a great day for the club as well as Perth and Kinross. We have never reached the final in our 130-year history so we’ll have a real day out at the final.”
“It’s about the city of Perth and it’s massive for the area. We have the Ryder Cup coming to Perthshire later in the year and hopefully we can bring the Scottish Cup here as well.
“I’d like to think the whole area will get behind us. First and foremost, it’s obviously about St Johnstone fans, the people who have supported the club through thick and thin.
“But it’s also about the wider community and hopefully people who don’t normally come to our games or maybe even don’t support St Johnstone will turn out in their droves for the final at Celtic Park. We’d love to have them there backing us.
“We need to waken people up. Full marks to the 3,200 supporters who were there for Sunday’s win over Aberdeen but there were so many people who didn’t go to the game but who could have.
“Hopefully they’ll come out for the cup final and that will get them supporting the club regularly again.”
Brown has enjoyed great success since taking over from his long-serving chairman dad Geoff as McDiarmid supremo back in November, 2011.
That is something Brown snr insists with tongue firmly in cheek is all down to the groundwork he put in place during his quarter of a century at the helm.
He said: “Since I stepped down, Steve has seen the team get into Europe twice, beaten Rosenborg and make it into the Scottish Cup final.
“I had 25 years and only got to one final and Europe once. He’s crammed a lot into his two and a half years!
“But in every good job someone has to lay the foundations for other people to build on. That’s what I was doing.”
The father and son were together in the directors’ box at Ibrox for the victory over the Dons and the elder Brown admitted the joyous emotions at the end were in sharp contrast to the last semi-final he had attended, the 4-0 League Cup loss against the same opponents at Tynecastle.
He recalled: “I was with the supporters for the semi-final at Tynecastle. We had breakfast at McDiarmid, I got on one of the buses and went with the fans for a day out.
“It was pouring with rain, we were standing at Tynecastle and it was like someone was pouring buckets of water over the top of us.
“We lost four goals and everyone trooped back to the buses with their heads in their hands. So to see the smiles on faces over the last few days sums up what it’s all about.”