St Johnstone defender Ryan McGowan can see a parallel between his country and his club.
The Australian national team surpassed pre-World Cup expectations when a strong dressing room bond, combined with clear and detailed match strategies, underpinned their passage through to the last-16 in Qatar.
With the Scottish Premiership set to resume for Saints against Ross County on Saturday, McGowan believes the Perth side have similar traits to draw upon as they seek to stay a top-six side for the duration of their league campaign.
Our @FIFAWorldCup #Qatar2022 campaign goes down as the most successful in our history to date 👏#Socceroos #GiveIt100 #FIFAWorldCup
— Socceroos (@Socceroos) December 4, 2022
“For Australia to get to the round of 16 was a great achievement and taking Messi’s Argentina to the last kick of the game was something to be really proud of from an Aussie perspective,” said McGowan, who played in the 2014 World Cup but missed out on selection this time around.
“We had to go through the play-offs to even get to the World Cup and that created a lot of talk about pathways, and whether we were producing enough good players.
“What they’ve done in Qatar has got Australians back behind the national team again.
"Thank you @Socceroos!!"
@CCMariners and @NewcastleJetsFC fans applaud Socceroos Gerang Kuol, Danny Vuckovic and Jason Cummings for their performance at the 2022 #WorldCup.#F3Derby #CCMvNEW #WeAreALeagues pic.twitter.com/glpg94lybZ
— 10 Football (@10FootballAU) December 11, 2022
“I was involved in a lot of the qualifiers so I was super-happy for everyone who was involved.
“They’ve made memories and achieved some history by winning two games.
“Hopefully that’s a springboard.”
‘Not the fanciest team’
Switching the focus to Scottish football, the former Hearts and Dundee United man added: “What it shows is that if you’ve got a tight group, everyone believing in each other and a good game plan then you’ve got a chance against anyone.
“It’s similar to what we’ve got here at St Johnstone.
“We’re not the fanciest team and there weren’t many people talking up our chances at the start of the season.
“But we’ve got a great dressing room, we work hard for each other and we set up well. That’s half the battle in football.”
After a summer of significant player transition, Saints have given themselves a solid platform for the second phase of the Premiership season, according to McGowan.
“We’ve set a standard of what we want to be about,” he said. “That’s what you have to do.
“You have to set a standard then as players you police that.
“If performances don’t match up then that’s down to us.
“We’ve got a good group who won’t hide from that.
“We’re not always going to play great but we need to make sure we keep getting the basics right and are in the game until the end.
“Sometimes pretty football isn’t what’s needed. You get games like St Mirren when we were down to 10-men and just needed to find a way to get a result.
Perfect angle of the goal ✅
Ran toward the camera ✅
Celebrations in the away end ✅Think this might be worth a second watch 🤩#SJFC | @spfl | @nickyclark91 pic.twitter.com/ouYvRVpTMP
— St. Johnstone FC (@StJohnstone) November 10, 2022
“As the season progressed, I think we did that a lot better.
“Boys have taken confidence from it and so have the fans.
“We’ve given ourselves a platform and we want to build on it now.
“We’ve played everybody in the league and we know there’s not much between most of the teams and what a string of good results can do for you.”
Squad depth
Team selection wasn’t easy for manager Callum Davidson before the World Cup break and it will be even harder after it.
“Good teams have strength in depth,” said McGowan.
“The manager knows that when he’s bringing a player off the bench it’s a like for like.
“That’s a benefit whether you’re trying to stay in front in a game or chase a goal.
“It’s huge to know that you’ve got subs to make an impact.
“Training is even better now that most of the guys with long-term injuries are back. It keeps everybody on their toes.”
