St. Johnstone meet Dundee United this weekend in the William Hill Scottish Cup Final with the Perth side ending a 130 year wait to be involved in a showdown for silverware.
The game at Parkhead is therefore special to anyone with St. Johnstone connections and for their former player Paul Sheerin it is special as a youngster he coached could turn out to be the match-winner.
Also for Arbroath Player/Manager Sheerin he was delighted that the McDiarmid Park side reached the Final after twice just missing out when he was a player.
Sheerin said: “The first Scottish Cup Semi-Final I was involved in was 2007 and we played well before losing 2-1 to Celtic. Owen Coyle was in charge of us then and ironically our next manager Derek McInnes was playing for us.”
“Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink scored early on and then Marin Hardie lobbed home an equaliser from a pass of mine fairly quickly afterwards. Vennegoor of Hesselink scored early again at the start of the second half but to be fair we pressed hard for an equaliser.”
No leveller was found and the day was to end in disappointment for Sheerin who said: “I was taken off for Willie McLaren for the last couple of minutes and I was far from happy with Owen for that. I hear comments from Arbroath players when they have been taken off and I have to remind myself how disappointed I was that day at Hampden.”
“We had acquitted ourselves really well but we just could not get over the finishing line, however the following year we came even closer.”
That year St. Johnstone played a Rangers side that were on a run to the UEFA Cup Final that season, and at the end of the 90 minutes the score was 0-0.
Sheerin takes things from there saying: “Unlike the semi the year before I came on as a substitute. I made an impact as I set up the goal for another substitute Daniel McBreen, who I believe is still playing football in his native Australia.”
“That was not long into extra time but we never won through to face Queen of the South as we never held onto the lead long enough.”
“We let Rangers back in quickly in fact before the end of the first half of extra time. Nacho Novo scored what we felt was a dubious penalty although when the stakes are as high as a Cup Final place any penalty given against you will be classed as dubious.”
The game went to penalties and Sheerin was first up for St Johnstone and he said: “I have taken penalties right through my career but I was really nervous taking that one as I had missed my last two. I had never missed two in a row before so there was a huge sigh of relief that I didn’t extend that run to three.”
“I scored and then Liam Craig scored and the ironic thing was that had missed one in a game against Clyde when I missed one as well.”
After that solid opening things slipped with Sheerin explaining: “Stephen Milne missed for us, and then Brahim Hemdani missed for Rangers, but the decisive miss came from our most experienced player Jody Morris. Derek had brought him in a few months before and he had played in bigger and better games than that Semi-Final in his career including an FA Cup Final but he was pretty distraught afterwards.”
“It still rankled with him during the rest of his time at Saints but I am in favour of penalties even though they can be horrible. The SFA Youth Cup Final between Rangers and Hearts was settled by them on Tuesday night and the poor Clyde youngster missed one last weekend in their Play-Off match. It is not nice for the players who miss them but they are the fairest way of settling a game as you do get a decision.”
One player from those two games remains in the Saints ranks with Sheerin saying: “Steven Anderson was involved in both of those games and that is terrific for him that he has made a Final. He started off at Dundee United and he has built a good career for himself since being Derek McInnes’ boot boy at Tannadice.”
“This is his Testimonial year and it would be a brilliant way for him to mark a very good career, in fact Steven has had a pretty unique career by staying so long at the one club by winning on Saturday. He is now topping that by being involved in the Scottish Cup Final.”
One of Anderson’s highest profile team-mates is the much talked about striker Stevie May and Sheerin remains proud of setting up May’s first ever senior goal.
Sheerin worked with the striker when he was a youth coach at St Johnstone and linked up with a then 16-year-old May when he made a scoring debut five years ago for the Saints.
May netted in a 4-0 win over Airdrie in May 2009 and Sheerin said: “Stevie worked with me when I was coaching the under-19’s at St Johnstone and he scored a barrow load of goals alongside another boy called Stephen Reynolds. There were high hopes for the both of them.”
“Stephen is back over in Ireland now however Stevie has progressed fantastically well. Playing at Alloa and then Hamilton certainly developed him and no matter what he does in football I will always be able to say that I set up his first senior goal.”
“It was an end of the season game at Airdrie played on a Monday night as the Saturday game was called off due to rain. We had won the First Division by that time and fielded a shadow side after being out on the Saturday night but we still won 4-0.”
Sheerin recalled the goal saying: “I flicked the ball on for Stevie to run through and score. That was quite a special moment for us both. For Stevie as it was his first ever goal and it was special for me because it was terrific to see a kid you had trained from an early stage make his mark in the senior game.”
“The one thing he had then and still has now is the desire to go forward. He was not interested in moving the ball back the way or side-ways he is always looking to move forward and get an effort in on goal. He had a desire to do well and it is no surprise that he has done so well.”
May’s mentor has one regret for his former club as he explained: “It is St. Johnstone’e first ever Scottish Cup Final and it will be a massive occasion for them but it is a shame it not at Hampden. Playing at the National Stadium was always inspiring and bearing in mind we were the underdogs when we were there we enjoyed that inspiration.”
“It was the same when I played there with Ayr and played Rangers and Celtic in big cup games in the space of a week. The big build up and the journey to Hampden were great and made you all the more determined to do well.”
“St. Johnstone are the underdogs this weekend and hopefully Parkhead will give them the lift that Hampden used to give me. It is a one-off and they can win it.”
Sheerin finished by saying: “Both teams like to go forward with United have a squad that is young and enthusiastic with St. Johnstone possibly having the more experience. “
“I still stay in Perth and it has been a busy place this week in the build up to the Final. It would be nice if it was a busy and happy place after the Final as well.”
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