It’s the time to start looking for Scottish Cup omens again.
Here are a few reasons St Johnstone’s clash with Hibs at Hampden Park could be another date with destiny for the Perth club.
First time for everything
The current Scottish Cup campaign has already seen St Johnstone break significant new ground.
Before this season they had never won a match in the competition at Dens Park.
There had been four defeats to Dundee there – in 1930, 1949, 1977 and 1985.
After Clyde were knocked out in the last-16, Saints then had the weight of history (not to mention the strongest Rangers side in many a year) to overcome in the quarter-final.
They had never won a Scottish Cup tie at Ibrox, or indeed in Perth, against the Light Blues.
If you’re going to smash a hoodoo, do it spectacularly. And game-endings don’t come much more dramatic than the one Clark, Chris Kane and the spot-kick heroes produced.
🤯🤯 Unbelievable scenes in the Scottish Cup at Ibrox!
🙌 St Johnstone goalkeeper Zander Clark assisted an equaliser for Christopher Kane in stoppage-time of extra-time and he went on to save TWO penalties in the shoot-out win over Rangers!pic.twitter.com/Pem8UmyZLm
— Sporting Life Football (@SportingLifeFC) April 25, 2021
Beating St Mirren was the first Scottish Cup semi-final triumph at Hampden for Saints and Saturday would be the first in a Scottish Cup final.
The Arsenal connection
When Saints won their one and only Scottish Cup final to date against Dundee United in 2014, Paddy Cregg was among the substitutes.
The Irishman started out with Arsenal, progressing from their academy to make three first team appearances in the League Cup.
Could it be a lucky omen that this time around, in Charlie Gilmour, Saints will again have a midfielder who began his career with the north London giants and got the briefest taste of top team football (in the Europa League) there on their bench?
Post-split mirror image
St Johnstone were a top-six side in the Premiership in 2014 as they were this season.
Their results after the split were two draws, one win and two defeats.
In 2021? An identical two draws, one win and two defeats.
And the victories?
It just happened to be against the side Saints would go on to beat in the final seven years ago and this season the solitary league win was against, you guessed it, Hibs.
Some more Dundee United and Hibs symmetry
In head-to-heads St Johnstone have got the better of Hibs this season and it is all eerily reminiscent of the form curve in relation to United in 2013/14.
Back then Saints lost the first match against the Tangerines but went on to figure them out and post three wins ahead of the final.
This season Saints went down to a late penalty loss at McDiarmid Park but haven’t been defeated by Hibs since. And, once more, they go into the big game on the back of three-in-a-row versus their opponents.
You could even draw a more general comparison between Jackie McNamara’s United and Jack Ross’s Hibs – young, exciting sides, full of players destined for bigger things (with outstanding future Scotland internationals at left-back) but who hadn’t/haven’t delivered any silverware.
Tommy Wright’s Saints had got into the head of a manager and his team. Is that the case again?
