Northern Ireland midfielder Ali McCann was St Johnstone’s matchwinner with an impressive 20-yard finish on Saturday as they came back from two goals down to beat Kilmarnock 3-2 at Rugby Park.
The 21-year-old capped a fine individual display with a strike which combined power and accuracy and now he is looking forward to going toe-to-toe with international mentor Steven Davis at Ibrox on Wednesday.
Davis (36) has helped McCann make the step-up to representative level but he will be showing him no respect as Saints attempt to become the first team to defeat runaway leaders Rangers in a league match this season.
“He has been brilliant,” said McCann.
“He is great with everyone, particularly the younger players.
“You look at his day-to-day conduct, which is excellent.
“By that, I mean how he is in training and how he is around the camps. He is the ultimate professional.
“If you can take any tips off him then you will stand yourself in good stead going forward as a footballer.
“He is huge for Rangers,” added the young Saint.
“I have only seen a couple of their other games but, from the matches against us, you can see how he builds the play.
“I am sure when we go up against them we will be pinpointing that to try and stop their play. Hopefully, we’ll also show a positive mindset.
“They are a strong team all over the pitch so we need to be at it from the start in every area.
“At places like Ibrox, you need everyone to be on it to get something but we can go there with confidence, particularly after this result.
“It’s going to be tough for us because everyone knows they have been flying and are top of the league by some distance but we need to go there and be confident.”
Baffled at break
McCann was as baffled as everyone else when Kilmarnock led 2-0 at half-time.
Saints had been the better team from the first minute but lax defending saw Chris Burke and Aaron Tshibola put the hosts in the driving seat.
However, the visitors moved into top gear after the break and goals from Guy Melamed and Murray Davidson provided the platform for McCann to seal the deal, a result which cost Killie manager Alex Dyer his job.
“It was a weird one because, despite the scoreline, I actually thought we played quite well in the first half,” claimed McCann.
“We made a few chances and didn’t take them but they were poor goals on our part to concede.
“However, it just shows the character we have to come back and dominate the second half completely. We deserved the win in the end.
“As for the finish, it’s not like me, is it? I need to add some more goals to my games so, hopefully, I can kickstart things from here.
“All our midfielders need to be chipping in. We need goals from the midfielders and strikers – and for defenders to be scoring from set-pieces, as we saw in the semi-final win against Hibs.”
Praise for boss
McCann also praised his manager Callum Davidson for retaining his composure at the interval.
The 44-year-old accentuated the positive and sent his charges back out for the second half feeling good about themselves.
“Basically, the message at half-time was to not panic because we were getting openings,” McCann revealed.
“We felt if we could just get one goal we could go on and get more and get the result, which is how it turned out. It was about more of the same.
“It’s a massive win. We’ve gone above Killie in the table and that’s huge for us. If we can build on it then we can start looking up the table.
“We just need to keep chipping away, picking up points and distancing ourselves from the teams below us. Once we do that we can go for the top six.”
