St Johnstone Take Two

There is a saying that a semi final is the hardest game to lose because you are one game from the final and nobody ever remembers semi final losers. Personally I find that as reaching a semi final is an achievement in itself for our club, losing in one isn't as bad as it has sometimes been made out.

Certainly the semi final defeats to Rangers and Celtic that I have experienced have not filled me with joy but it was nothing compared to the pain of losing in a quarter final. We don't get to enough quarter finals for losing them to become a matter of course. By the time we've reached them we inevitably feel that we are on a path laid down by destiny and Hampden awaits us. And then Celtic, Dundee United, Aberdeen or Inverness pap us out in a variety of differing circumstances to deny us our big shot at glory. But there is another team to add to that list – St Johnstone. Motherwell may have a list of black dates as long as your arm but March 6^th 1999 has to be right up (or down) there with the worst of them.

It was one of those times when we caught a rare dose of big club arrogance and it bit us badly. When we were paired with St Johnstone it was deemed to be a great draw. In fairness we had avoided the Old Firm but St Johnstone had not only already reached the League Cup final but they had defeated us in two out of the three leagues matches already played; including a 5-0 hounding in Billy Davies' first game in charge.

However wee Billy had turned things around reasonably well and after a poor start in the league we were flying. The likes of Goram, Brannan and Spencer had been brought in on big wages and thoughts of relegation had been vanquished. An absolutely stunning 3-1 win over cup holders Hearts in January gave us the confidence that we could beat anyone and when Stirling were disposed of with only a little fuss in the next round the temptation was to believe our name was the cup. The draw pairing us with St Johnstone – they wouldn't even fill the lower south for goodness' sake! – simply spurred on that unfortunate line of thinking.

But then, the night before the game, things started to go wrong. Owen Coyle departed in decidedly odd circumstances to Dunfermline for £170k and rumours abounded over dressing room discord. It turns out Coyle had manufactured his move and we definitely got a great deal in some respects – he was finished as a top-level player and the cash was good. However selling him on the eve of the cup game sent out the entirely wrong message and a nervous Motherwell side ran out in front of an even edgier home crowd. The game was spectacularly awful and without Coyle we simply never looked like scoring. St Johnstone weren't exactly threatening Andy Goram either but they were pressing enough to make an away win inevitable. Eventually they headed home a corner and when Miguel Simao – surely one of the most annoying players to ever grace Fir Park – poked home a second he rounded off our misery by indulging in a horrific shuffling dance in front of the delirious away support. It was the stereotypical car crash moment – utterly horrendous to see but you couldn't take your eyes off it.

As it happens St Johnstone drew Rangers in the semi final and were destroyed 4-0 so perhaps it wouldn't have been our year even if we had disposed of the Perth men. The Inverness debacle in 2004 should be a strong warning what a high flying team in the First Division can do but if we play to our potential we must fancy our chances of getting overdue revenge on both St Johnstone and Owen Coyle.