Callum Davidson is just 90 minutes away from marking his first season as a manager with a cup final appearance.
It’s a tantalising prospect as only Willie Ormond, in 1969, and Sandy Clark, in 1998, have led St Johnstone into the final of the League Cup.
The McDiarmid boss admits this term’s Betfred Cup competition has been thrown wide open after the shock early exits of Celtic and Rangers.
But Davidson believes the Perth side couldn’t have landed tougher semi-final opposition than Jack Ross’s high-flying Hibs.
St Mirren – league opponents this weekend – and Livingston go head to head in the other January semi-final tie at Hampden.
Saints squeezed through to the last four in a penalty shootout after their 1-1 draw at Championship side Dunfermline.
But now McDiarmid fans are eying-up the prospect of their first League Cup final for more than 20 years – and just the third in the club’s history.
“Hibs are one of the form teams in the country so it’s probably the toughest draw we could have got,” cautioned Davidson.
“They are having a great season and once St Mirren knocked out Rangers most people will expect Hibs to win it now.
“They are sitting high up in the league and Jack has brought in a lot of good players. So they will rightly be favourites for the tournament.
“But any game is difficult in a semi-final no matter who you play.”
Saints last reached this stage of the competition in 2016, when Tommy Wright’s side lost 2-1 to an Easter Road outfit led by Alan Stubbs.
Of the current players, only Murray Davidson, Michael O’Halloran, David Wotherspoon, Liam Craig and Zander Clark featured in that squad.
Saints have lost out four times at the semi-final stage since a 2-1 final defeat to Rangers at Celtic Park, when a ferocious Nick Dasovic strike was sandwiched by first-half goals from Stephane Guivarc’h and Jorg Albertz.
Perth fans have been denied progress to finals by Hibs – twice, in 2007 and 2016 – Rangers in 2010 and Aberdeen in the 2014 Scottish Cup winning campaign.
“The club has had a lot of near-misses in the Betfred Cup over the years,” said Davidson.
“We have been to a lot of semi-finals but haven’t been able to go that step further and make it to the final.
“I think the last one was back in 1998 and there have been a lot of semis since then.
“It’s great getting to the last four but it only really satisfies you if you get to the final.
“It will be a big occasion for us and gives everyone at the club something to look forward to.
“It’s great but we have a lot of games between now and then, so we have to put it on the back burner and focus on the league.”
Davidson’s immediate priority is plotting how to bring St Mirren crashing back to earth after their cup heroics.
He took in the stunning 3-2 midweek win over Rangers and was impressed with Jim Goodwin’s battling Buddies, who are on an eight-game unbeaten run.
“St Mirren were very good,” said Davidson, whose own club record 11-match unbeaten sequence was ended last weekend by Livingston.
“They have found their form in the last couple of months and have picked up some good results.
“But we have been in decent form too.
“Every week in this league is tough, there has been no easy games yet, and I would expect nothing less on Saturday.”
