Picking the best footballer to come out of St Johnstone’s academy over the last three decades would be no easy task.
You’d certainly get a fine one to 11 – and be kept busy for a while – by playing that particular game.
Picking the best team isn’t quite so tricky, though.
It was the 1995 one. The one that proved the value of establishing a pro-youth set-up. The one that nearly became the best in the country. The one the current under-18s are seeking to emulate by getting to Hampden.
The very first one that Alistair Stevenson built.
Still at McDiarmid Park now in a head of youth development role, and responsible for helping put together the latest Saints team to reach a Scottish Youth cup semi-final, Stevenson took a leap of faith in giving up a job in the Rangers academy.
“I’d just moved from Rangers up to St Johnstone and that was my first year,” he recalled.
“That was my dream team at Rangers but part of the reason I left was I knew very few would progress to the first team and the St Johnstone thing was a challenge.”
Recruiting a few players who had been at Ibrox with him gave Stevenson a head-start – the likes of Stuart McCluskey and Scott Young fell into that category.
And putting in the hours to persuade Belfast boy Danny Griffin and his parents that Perth rather than Glasgow or Liverpool would be the best place to embark upon a football career was another early big win.
“To get Danny I had to fly him over from Ireland for games,” said Stevenson. “It wouldn’t happen nowadays.
“I had to convince Geoff (Brown) that this was worth doing.
“My dad would pick him up at the airport on a Saturday morning and take him to a game. He’d either go back to the airport after it or to my dad’s.
“That was the only way we could get him. He loved it so much we couldn’t get rid of him and he’s still at the club now!”
It’s not just the fact that Liam Craig and Alex Cleland’s present-day team has emulated his own by reaching the semi-final of the biggest academy cup competition in the country that makes Griffin draw a 1995/2023 comparison.
There’s an age similarity.
Brodie Dair 👤
14 years old 🤯
Comes off the bench 👏
Scores the 95th minute winner ✨
Runs to our camera 🤝
Scenes 🤩#SJFC pic.twitter.com/WjEFayi29n
— St. Johnstone FC (@StJohnstone) January 27, 2023
“We effectively played a year above us like these boys, who are mostly 16,” said Griffin. “It was a very young side.
“We played attractive football but we could do the dirty stuff when we needed to.
“The perfect example of that was Airdrie in the quarter-final.
“It was at Cliftonhill. The mini bus broke down on the way there and we didn’t get there until five minutes before kick-off.
“There was no warm-up and Airdrie thought they would be able to bully us. It was a kicking match and we won it well.
“We beat Hearts on penalties in the semi-final at Tynecastle – I’d actually taken one for the first team at Livingston in the League Cup by then.”
Underdogs
For the Hampden Park final – the first time the BP Youth Cup as it was known then was up for grabs at the national stadium – Saints were undoubtedly the underdogs.
Not only were Rangers the holders, they had Barry Ferguson, Scott Wilson, Steven Boyack and Greg Shields in their starting 11.
“It was basically Alistair’s old team because he’d left there to come to St Johnstone,” said Griffin.
“We’d already beaten them that season but it was different team they put out for the final, with the likes of Barry Ferguson in it.
“The occasion probably got to a few of the players but we were in it for a long time.
“We had an opportunity but just didn’t manage to take it.
“I know youth football is about player development but we knew it was a massive game for us – it still is when I look back now.
“It was for the club as well.
“Remember, this was the first time there had been a youth academy at St Johnstone.
“The following year we were the favourites to win because we were playing in our own age group by then.
“Hearts got their own back by beating us in extra-time.”
The sentimental sub
Ironically, one of the Rangers substitutes that night, Lee Dair, is the father of the 14-year-old whose winner against Dundee United sent Saints through to this year’s semi, Brodie Dair.
“I played every game on the way to the final but I was injured the week before it,” said Lee. “I’d scored in virtually every round as well.
“I got injured in training.
“Billy Kirkwood and John McGregor put me on the bench when they probably shouldn’t have because I wasn’t fit.
“It was a bit of sentiment. I think I got on for the last few minutes but I couldn’t run.
“I really appreciated it.
“It was 2-0 and we were comfy in the game. We had a team full of players who had won the Glasgow Cup against Celtic that year, the same the year before. And we’d won the Youth Cup the year before as well.
“We had boys who were good in those pressure situations.”
They didn’t have the man of the match, though.
That award went to Saints midfielder, Scott Young.
“Youngy was a Rangers fan and his wee brother was at Rangers,” said Griffin.
“He had real ability. Making tackles and dictating play wasn’t really his game but he was great at timing his runs to get into the box.
“He went to Dunfermline after being released by Saints and was a big player for Glentoran and managed them as well.”
Scott Young. Proper Glentoran legend. https://t.co/orXvqxIx7n
— McGib (@CM8205) November 30, 2020
Stevenson added: “Scott young was terrific on the night, he really was.
“He was one of the ones who had been in at Rangers. He was overlooked for being too small.
“His dad drove him and there was no way Scott wasn’t going to make it.
“Height probably did count against him in the end but he went on to find a good level.”
Making memories and making careers
From a player’s point of view that day, that cup run and that team were about making memories and – for more of them than not – making a career for themselves.
“Every day I walk into the Muirton Suite I see the picture of our ’95 side,” said Griffin, who is a community development officer with Saints in the Community.
“It was the same team that went on to win the under-21 league.
“There was definitely a lot of ability in the group.
“I played first team (and earned 29 caps for Northern Ireland and a £600,000 transfer fee for Saints), so did Stuart McCluskey, Stephen Robertson. Andy Whiteford, Scott Young. And the likes of Craig Reynolds were close.
“Most of the others had careers in football.”
Stevenson said: “Andy Whiteford played up front in that cup final and it was only a couple of years later that he was playing at centre-half with Stuart McCluskey against Celtic in the Harald Brattbakk game to win them the league.
“That 1995 team went on to beat Blackburn 4-0 in the final of the Milk Cup and I can remember them beating the Chilean national team.
“They did fantastically well.
“In the very first under-21 league, John Blackley took responsibility for them. And they won that too.
“To this day Sloop still says, apart from playing, those were his happiest days in football.
“He said he went to work with a spring in his step and came back the same.
“That says it all.”
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