LEAGUE CUP FINAL: St Johnstone v Livingston, Hampden Park, 28 Feb 2021


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4 hours ago, R.B.B:- Adz said:

It was a joke but cheers 

Personally I am delighted the bookies have made Livi  favourites.  I am also pleased they are getting the "fairy tale" vote. 

Call me a pessimist if you like but in over 70 years supporting Saints I always get nervous if people tip us to win.  I know 2 bookies, neither knew the origin of our team's name and one did not even know we played in Perth.

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I think it's easy to assume that Livi's bubble has burst but I have no doubt at all that they will be 100% up for and prepared for the final.  I must say that I have a lot of faith in Callum's approach to motivating a team as well - he was a passionate player on the pitch and with McLean in the dressing room too I don't think for one second we'll see a repeat of previous cup disappointments - example being the Scottish Cup semi v Motherwell at Hampden (was it about 2011 under McInnes?) when we all thought it was our big chance to make the final and completely failed to show up for the first 30 minutes.

I'm getting extremely nervous about this game already.  I don't think there is a favourite or an underdog, just two pretty evenly matched teams who will both be well prepared.  I just hope there's not a daft first half red card or something to ruin the occasion.

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I'm the opposite of Abernethy Saint. I always felt confident we'd beat Dundee United in the Scottish Cup Final. We had the measure of them throughout the season. This time around, I feel slightly less confident but the nerves are also less (presumably because we're in a pandemic, there isn't such a public buzz in the build-up, and we can't be there in person).

Edited by The Real Saints
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2 hours ago, The Real Saints said:

I'm the opposite of Abernethy Saint. I always felt confident we'd beat Dundee United in the Scottish Cup Final. We had the measure of them throughout the season. This time around, I feel slightly less confident but the nerves are also less (presumably because we're in a pandemic, there isn't such a public buzz in the build-up, and we can't be there in person).

I'd echo this. I think the 2014 Cup Final is possibly the only time in my life where I've felt genuinely confident going into a big Saints match. It just felt at the time like all the stars were aligning for us, and our team was hitting its peak at exactly the right time. That said, the nerves still got to me as I can remember feeling incredibly ill on the morning of that match (well, it was either nerves or the horrible blue pint I had in the Royal the night before). God knows what it must be like to be actually playing in a game like this.

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44 minutes ago, blueheaven said:

I'd echo this. I think the 2014 Cup Final is possibly the only time in my life where I've felt genuinely confident going into a big Saints match. It just felt at the time like all the stars were aligning for us, and our team was hitting its peak at exactly the right time. That said, the nerves still got to me as I can remember feeling incredibly ill on the morning of that match (well, it was either nerves or the horrible blue pint I had in the Royal the night before). God knows what it must be like to be actually playing in a game like this.

I was the opposite, I was convinced United would turn up.

Even at 2-0 I was saying, “if they score now they will go on to equalise and beat us on pens”.

I’m at my most pessimistic when watching Saints.

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Livingston players will travel to Sunday's Scottish League Cup final at Hampden in their own cars.

Manager David Martindale says the decision was made after a player had to self-isolate when declared a close contact of a colleague who tested positive for Covid-19 on the team bus. BBC

The players concerned are not named

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1 hour ago, blueheaven said:

I'd echo this. I think the 2014 Cup Final is possibly the only time in my life where I've felt genuinely confident going into a big Saints match. It just felt at the time like all the stars were aligning for us, and our team was hitting its peak at exactly the right time. That said, the nerves still got to me as I can remember feeling incredibly ill on the morning of that match (well, it was either nerves or the horrible blue pint I had in the Royal the night before). God knows what it must be like to be actually playing in a game like this.

I remember feeling almost physically sick on the way to Parkhead from the pub in Glasgow.

I just hope no one is getting ahead of themselves; this is going to be a serious battle between two well matched teams.

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No confidence last time and nerves were shot after cup final win....celebrated a bit but truly couldnt believe we'd won something. 

This time i feel confident, and far less stressed as we have that cup notch in our belt. I also think them being favorites is great,  shows emotional money is being bet on this livi manager, rags to riches.

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4 hours ago, blueheaven said:

I'd echo this. I think the 2014 Cup Final is possibly the only time in my life where I've felt genuinely confident going into a big Saints match. It just felt at the time like all the stars were aligning for us, and our team was hitting its peak at exactly the right time. That said, the nerves still got to me as I can remember feeling incredibly ill on the morning of that match (well, it was either nerves or the horrible blue pint I had in the Royal the night before). God knows what it must be like to be actually playing in a game like this.

The blue pint was only one of inveralmond brewery beers with blue food colour  in it 

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6 hours ago, R.B.B:- Adz said:

I was the opposite, I was convinced United would turn up.

Even at 2-0 I was saying, “if they score now they will go on to equalise and beat us on pens”.

I’m at my most pessimistic when watching Saints.

Aye.

The more confident Saints fans get, the more nervous I get.

Livi will be much stronger than our last meeting. Arguably their two most important players (Guthrie, Mullin) are back after missing that game, and both played major roles in their win at McDiarmid. 

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9 hours ago, The Real Saints said:

I'm the opposite of Abernethy Saint. I always felt confident we'd beat Dundee United in the Scottish Cup Final. We had the measure of them throughout the season. This time around, I feel slightly less confident but the nerves are also less (presumably because we're in a pandemic, there isn't such a public buzz in the build-up, and we can't be there in person).

I was exactly the same. Arguably the semi win in 2014 felt more unbelievable, but for the final I was more confident in a saints win that I think I have ever been for any other game. Just felt like it was always going to happen.

For this final, annoyingly I'm also pretty confident we will win, but as someone else said, I have no basis for it as Livi will be a fair match for saints.

I suppose if anything, the occasion might get to them more than saints? Plenty in the saints squad have experience in finals etc

 

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23 hours ago, R.B.B:- Adz said:

It was a joke but cheers 

Cheers thanks for telling us, :wacko: :laugh:

On the cup final I am confident but have this nagging doubt in the back of my mind that it will all go belly up. 

The confidence comes from the fact that Saints always like doing things the difficult way and after over 100 years only Saints could win the League Cup for the first time in it's history with no fans, no family and no parade.  

At the 2014 final I took my dad to the hospitality area and missed so much by being there, not really the same as being in the midst of the stand behind the goals. Never thought that the next final would come 7 years later but have to stay at home and watch it.

It is the older fans that i feel for who might never get the chance to see Saints in a cup final again. Imagine going to every semi and cup final over the last 86 years and missing them winning a league cup.

It will be tough but BELIEVE!!!

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I guess if you are an older fan you already experienced the 2014 cup win and have those memories. My son was too young to go to the 2014 final, he's at a good age now to go and watch and it would have been great for 3 generations of our family to go. As it is we cant even all be in the same room. I guess its a small price to pay to get out of this. Hopefully the only way is up for Saints and we have more of these days to look forward to. 

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6 hours ago, mainstand said:

Cheers thanks for telling us, :wacko: :laugh:

On the cup final I am confident but have this nagging doubt in the back of my mind that it will all go belly up. 

The confidence comes from the fact that Saints always like doing things the difficult way and after over 100 years only Saints could win the League Cup for the first time in it's history with no fans, no family and no parade.  

At the 2014 final I took my dad to the hospitality area and missed so much by being there, not really the same as being in the midst of the stand behind the goals. Never thought that the next final would come 7 years later but have to stay at home and watch it.

It is the older fans that i feel for who might never get the chance to see Saints in a cup final again. Imagine going to every semi and cup final over the last 86 years and missing them winning a league cup.

It will be tough but BELIEVE!!!

How did Celtic celebrate during their Covid cup final win.

I feel sorry for Saints or Livi players . They will not be able to celebrate properly.

No dancing about in dressing room with coaching staff ,directors etc ,spraying Champers etc all over the place. Then jump into their cars & drive home.

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I was at the cup final in 1969 with my old Dad. It was the first game we ever went to together. It's one of these games which lives with you forever; Hampden - the smell of the grass, the huge crowd, the noise. We lost to a Celtic team full of the Lisbon Lions that day and if we hadn't lost that early goal we could well have went on to win it - Billy McNeil was giant that day heading a Buck McCarrie header of the line late on. I recall the press being very generous of their praise for us

My old man had passed when we won in 2014 and I suspect like a lot of people thinking of absent friends, at the final whistle my first thoughts went to Dad. Still a poignant moment for me.

I have no right to be greedy because  I never thought we would win a major trophy in my lifetime but having been to two losing league cup finals..... if we could win this one I would be a very happy man.

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1 hour ago, Cagey said:

How did Celtic celebrate during their Covid cup final win.

I feel sorry for Saints or Livi players . They will not be able to celebrate properly.

No dancing about in dressing room with coaching staff ,directors etc ,spraying Champers etc all over the place. Then jump into their cars & drive home.

That is the thing they did from memory dance about and sing and spray champagne over each other. Whether they will be able to do that this week is another thing. Scotland rugby players did it after the win at Twickenham. 

Livi wont be as they will ahve lost but they will all be driving home anyway so strictly no beer for them :)

I did watch a interview with Martindale last night where he talks about the fact that if they were going by bus they would need 6 buses with 6 players on each. Heard Lennon say the same about Celtic at the weekend they took 6 full size 53 seater buses to Dingwall.  I know saints were previously taking 2 buses to matches, are we now taking 6? 

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