St Johnstone boss Tommy Wright believes his Dundee United counterpart Jackie McNamara will not play teenagers John Souttar and Ryan Gauld in tomorrow’s William Hill Scottish Cup final.
The Saints boss was speaking at a special media day within the grand surroundings of Scone Palace.
It may have once been the crowning place of Scottish kings but it was the young pretenders in the United squad that were the focus of Wright’s attention.
However, the big Northern Irishman was also keen to dispel the notion that the showpiece occasion at Celtic Park will be between his seasoned campaigners and a more callow Tangerines group.
He said: “Dundee United have experience. Gavin Gunning, John Rankin, Sean Dillon, Paul Paton. He (McNamara) won’t play his young players. John Souttar and Ryan Gauld won’t play. Andrew Robertson will be the only player without a lot of experience in his team.”
“Gary Mackay-Steven has a lot of experience and so does Stuart Armstrong. I don’t buy into that ‘young and inexperienced’.
“They’ve a good team of players who have got experience in the league and we think we’ve got experience and a blend of youth as well that we can call upon.
“I just feel Gauld and Souttar won’t play. When you look at it, Souttar hasn’t done particularly well against us or Stevie May. I feel he won’t play him.
“Ryan Dow normally does OK against us so I think he’ll go with Dow in there instead of Gauld and bring him on later on.”
St Johnstone are set to be roared on by 15,000 fans at Celtic Park tomorrow and Wright admitted he hopes the experience will persuade a substantial number of them to make following Saints a regular experience.
He said: “I hope being in the final will get people coming back. We finished third last season and the crowds dropped by 500. This season we have played well at home, averaging two goals at home, but the
figures are only a little bit up.
“We’ve had supporters’ meetings but nobody has been able to put their finger on why.
“You’d think that with someone like Stevie May, a local lad and someone who could turn out to be one of the best young players to come out of Scotland for a long time, people would want to watch him but for whatever reason it hasn’t happened.
“The club try hard, they do a lot of initiatives with family stands and community things.
“Roddy Grant is around the schools and so are the players, so we are trying in the community. I don’t know what more we can do, so I just hope that if we win the Scottish Cup, then it would make a difference.
“Getting even 500 more season tickets would make a huge impact on the finances and my budget.
“It is great for Scottish football that two Tayside clubs are in the final. I did say before the semi-final that St Johnstone in the final would be a great story.
“And the fact we have over 15,000 people coming I think makes it a good story, a club that has never won it.”
Wright cut a relaxed figure as he spoke to the press and while excitement in and around Perth is reaching fever pitch, the manager is determined to remain an oasis of calm.
He added: “There is no pressure. The only difficulty I have is that there is a hell of a lot more to do outwith concentrating on the football, with the excitement and what is going on at the club.
“That’s a difficulty but it’s a nice problem to have. We had one of the best training sessions we have had this season on Thursday and after our session on Friday I can relax even more.
“I am not feeling under pressure about it. Everybody seems to be happy that we are in the final, which is good.
“But as I said to the players, there is no point in us getting to the final and not winning it, and that is what we are hopefully going to do.”
Wright has been inundated with good-luck messages in advance of the final but he revealed that his predecessor at the club has remained silent.
Last season he was assistant to Steve Lomas, but the pair have not stayed in touch, which is a source of regret for Wright.
He added: “It’s not my doing. He hasn’t spoken to me since I told him I wasn’t going to join him at Millwall. I’ll always be grateful to him for giving me the opportunity here, but I felt the club he was going to wasn’t right for him.
“I’m disappointed that he feels he can’t speak to me but that happens in football. The Millwall thing just didn’t stack up for me.”