Saturday’s battling 0-0 draw between St Johnstone and Hearts is unlikely to have left much of a lasting impression on the vast majority of those watching or taking part.
However, it was certainly memorable for Saints Richard Foster with the former Aberdeen, Rangers, Bristol City and Ross County player making his 500th career appearance in the game.
St Johnstone went into the match looking to build on last week’s fantastic 3-1 victory over Rangers at Ibrox, with Hearts also buoyed by their record-ending win against Celtic at Tynecastle 24 hours later.
However, both sides cancelled each other out with chances at a premium.
Home skipper Joe Shaughnessy did come close with a header in the first half but then Saints had a close shave in the second 45 when Steven Anderson sliced a cross towards his own goal with keeper Zander Clark coming to his rescue with a vital save.
There were then great chances for the Jambos’ Kyle Lafferty and home sub David Wotherspoon but neither was taken.
Hearts were reduced to 10 men in the 78th minute when 16-year-old Harry Cochrane picked up his second booking of the afternoon with the game ending goal-less.
Foster, though was delighted with the point and reaching his personal milestone.
The 32-year-old said: “I am pretty sure today was my 500th game which was ironic as my 400th was also against Hearts for Rangers at Tynecastle and we drew 2-2
“As a football player, you set yourself goals and 500 games has been mine for a little while now.
“I am glad I have finally got there.
“I made my debut for Aberdeen against Partick Thistle at Pittodrie.
“I suppose I have just been lucky that I have managed to keep myself relatively fit.
“But you never imagine when you are starting out that you would play 500 games.
“I am proud that I have got there but now it is just about getting the next goal and see how many I can play.
“I have always said that I will keep going until the body says no or until someone stops giving me a contract – whichever comes first!
“The next goal would probably be 600 but that would be a challenge to get there considering my age now.
“But you have to set yourself these targets.”
When asked how he managed to keep track of so many games, Foster said: “I remember speaking to one of the guys at Aberdeen and he told me I had made 276 appearances for the club.
“From then on, it just intrigued me thinking, ‘How many have I made?’.
“So I have tried to keep track of it. I have counted from the 400th appearance against Hearts at Tynecastle.
“You speak to all the statisticians at the clubs and they are really good although apparently they are claiming I have scored 10 goals but I can only remember nine. However, I’ll take it!”
Unfortunately, there were no goals at all for the fans on Saturday but Foster insisted the draw was still a good result.
He said: “It was a tough game. The pitch was bobbly and the wind made it difficult to judge the ball. I thought both teams huffed and puffed and just really kind of stifled each other out in the end.
“Both of us had great results last week and at the end of this game a point probably isn’t a bad result.
“We’ve kind of stuttered and stammered this season. We had a great start and then we fell away a little bit.
“Every time we had a good result, like away to Hibs, in the next game we fell flat.
“It was important that we never lost the game. I thought we put in a relatively-good performance in the way we defended our box.”
