St Johnstone’s Simon Lappin has revealed it was very much a case of hoping it would be all right on the night at the corner routine that led to his goal against Rangers on Tuesday night at Ibrox.
The 32-year-old netted Saints second in a famous 3-1 victory to knock the Light Blues out of the League Cup.
David Wotherspoon took a corner from the left direct to Lappin lurking unmarked on the edge of the Rangers box and he sent a sweet left-foot shot into the back of the net.
When asked how many times they had worked on that corner in training, he candidly admitted: “We tried it once on Monday and it didn’t go too well, so we just left it in the hope that it would be all right on the night!
“The opportunity came up to try it, so why not? Luckily for me, it flew into the back of the net.
“It was nice to get that one but the most important thing was the team performance.
“From front to back, and the boys who came on, we worked our socks off and we knew we’d have to do that to progress in the cup.
“It was a great team performance and a great result.
“We knew how tough it was going to be coming to Ibrox, regardless of Rangers being in the Championship.
“They are a fantastic club and are filled with good players, so we knew how tough it would be.
“But we had a game plan and we stuck to that. Luckily it came off and we are in the next round of the cup, so we are all delighted.”
Despite St Johnstone being the Premiership side, the bookies had made Rangers firm favourites to go through in the tie but Lappin insisted that had not irritated the Perth players.
He said: “It doesn’t bother us. We just concentrate on doing what we know we are capable of.
“We knew if we stuck to what we wanted to do, we’d be hard to beat and we’d frustrate them. We got our chances and took them and the goals came at good times.
“We weren’t bothered about Rangers being favourites. It was just another game for us, regardless of the opposition and we approached it the same as any other game. Thankfully that got us into the next round.”
Lappin is now hoping the win over Rangers can help Saints kick on in the league.
He said: “Regardless of the competition, the bare minimum is to work as hard as that.
“Hopefully we can continue that into the league. We had a successful year last season, finishing fourth and hopefully we can have a bit more success this year.
“Hopefully we can go on a little cup run but our bread and butter is the league and it’s back to that on Saturday.”
Saints third goal was also a cracker from Michael O’Halloran and Lappin admitted his team-mate can go as far as he wants in the game.
He added: “It’s down to Mikey. He’s got all the attributes. He’s lightning quick but he’s more than just that.
“If he keeps working hard and progressing, it’s totally up to him where he goes.
“He’s a fantastic pro, always looking after himself and what he wants to achieve is down to him because he has everything going for him.”