St Johnstone players, fans and officials celebrated last season’s Scottish Cup final triumph at a black tie dinner on Sunday evening and how Tommy Wright would love to savour a repeat success in May.
Around 380 people packed into Perth Concert Hall to hail the Perth club’s historic win, and by all accounts an enjoyable night was had by all.
Saints continue their defence of the trophy down in Dumfries on Saturday, and Wright reckons the experience of winning silverware in the summer should give his players all the incentive they need to overcome Queen of the South this weekend.
“Having sampled the cup win last season and seen the reaction from the supporters in May and again at Sunday’s dinner would spur on anyone to try and repeat the success,” he explained.
“That’s only human nature.
“We are four games away from glory again but we genuinely do have to take it one at a time.
“We know this tie is going to be difficult, just how difficult will depend on how we approach it.
“But when we have played teams in leagues below us our attitude has always been right, home or away.
“We don’t take anything for granted and we certainly won’t be going into this with any complacency.
“It is set up to be a cracking tie.
“Outside the Celtic-Dundee game it is probably the most attractive tie of this round.”
Queen of the South are pushing for promotion to the top flight this season via the play-offs and will no doubt quietly fancy their chances of a cup upset.
Having said that though, Wright says his team will be well aware of that and will be ready for whatever the Doonhamers throw at them.
“We saw what they did against Rangers and I saw them against Livingston,” he said.
“The lad Gavin Reilly is a goal threat and he has been excellent for them.
“The pundits will be putting it down as a potential banana skin for us so we will have to be right at it.
“But if you look at our cup run last season everyone thought Forfar and Raith Rovers away were going to be tricky ties.
“Ties like this are what the cup is all about, it’s the beauty of the cup.
“They will fancy their chances, there’s no doubt about that.
“But by the same token we know if we are right on the day we can progress.”
Saints will be without the suspended Lee Croft on Saturday, although the midfielder probably would have missed out with an ankle knock anyway, while Chris Millar should return from injury giving the manager a headache when it comes to selection.
“We have Murray Davidson coming back into form and he and David Wotherspoon have been forming a good understanding in centre midfield,” he concluded.
“The partnership on the left between Simon Lappin and Brian Easton looks good and Chris Kane has come in and done well.
“Faddy did extremely well coming off the bench at the weekend so there is healthy competition for places.”