Gregory Tade has revealed that Saturday’s game against Kilmarnock was a deeply poignant occasion for him.
The striker came off the bench to seal St Johnstone’s win with his dad Theophile proudly watching on from the stands.
It was the first time Tade Sr had seen his son play professional football as the pair had a falling-out a few years ago.
However, the recent arrival of the player’s first-born has coincided with a mending of broken fences and Theophile travelled to Scotland last week to see his grand-daughter for the first time and to finally witness his son in pro-football action.
Incredibly, considering he was only on the pitch for the last 21 minutes, teetotaller Tade was awarded the sponsors’ man-of-the-match award and complimentary bottle of champagne.
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He said: “(The champagne) may just go back to France with my dad. It was the first time in my professional career that he has seen me play.
“I was a bit disappointed that I didn’t start because you want to do well when your parents are here. But I got a good goal and my dad was pleased with it.
“I didn’t get on well with my dad for a couple of years but we patched things up recently and I invited him over to see my daughter which was really important to me.
“He wanted to come to the game as well to watch me I think I will have to invite him more often.”
Tade Sr, though, must have considered hopping on the first flight home after witnessing the opening 45 minutes which was lacklustre at best.
Both sides were guilty of a succession of misplaced passes meaning that goalscoring chances were rare.
The first meaningful opportunity didn’t arrive until the 22nd minute when a speculative cross from the Saints right by skipper Dave Mackay eventually made its way through to Rowan Vine who blasted over from 12 yards.
Ten minutes later, Chris Millar sent Steven MacLean in behind the Killie rearguard with a perfectly-weighted pass but goalkeeper Cammy Bell won the battle of wits with the striker and saved well.
That was about it as far as “highlights” were concerned with Saints keeper Alan Mannus more at risk from mind-numbing boredom than anything the opposition could throw at him.
The opening stages of the second 45 followed a similar dispiriting pattern to the first with the game crying out for a goal.
Thankfully, it finally arrived in the 58th minute. A Liam Craig corner fell kindly for Murray Davidson who needed no second invitation to stab home from six yards for his seventh counter of the season.
Shortly after, Saints had a big scare when Steven Anderson stuck out a leg to stop a wicked cross from William Gros but the defender only succeeded in steering the ball towards his own goal and Mannus was relieved to see it flash just inches past his far post.
For the second time in the game, MacLean was played in on goal, this time by Craig but the striker was thwarted once again by Bell.
Davidson then had a chance to put the game to bed but this time, his headed effort flew over the bar.
However, in the 86th minute, Saints could finally breathe a sigh of relief when Craig produced another tantalising cross from the left, with the unmarked Tade nodding past a helpless Bell to secure all three points for Steve Lomas’s side.
St Johnstone now have another mini midwinter break before they face Dundee United on April Fool’s Day.
Perth boss Lomas applauded his players for recovering strongly after the Hearts setback although he once again hit out at the scheduling of fixtures.
He said: “I thought it was a very good performance and I don’t remember too many Killie chances. I thought we were pretty dominant second half and thoroughly deserved to win.
“We needed to bounce back after the disappointment of the Hearts game but listen, we don’t need to tell these boys whenever they have played badly, they know.
“Fortunately we have a lot of good, honest characters. We created five or six good chances and it was also good to get a clean sheet.
“We have had six games in 23 days, then you have three weeks off and then you come back and have two games in four days, Monday night and then Friday night.
“I can’t understand it but we have to look at the positives that we have three weeks to get people back and recover from wee niggles.”