St Johnstone Viaplay Cup: Familiar faces & happy hunting grounds

In just over a month St Johnstone will be back in action, hoping to banish the memories of a grim League Cup group stage in 2022 and sail through to the last 16 with a minimum of fuss.

Courier Sport takes an early look at the four clubs Steven MacLean’s men will be up against, who the familiar faces will be and the recent history Saints have with their summer opponents.

Ayr United

The Honest Men were drawn in the same group last season, with a 1-0 win proving not enough to secure progression to the knockout rounds.

There are no ex-Saints currently in the Ayr squad, though that could change, of course, over the next few weeks.

Reece McAlear, who scored twice for Inverness Caley Thistle in the first leg of the 2022 Premiership play-off, was linked with a move to McDiarmid Park last summer when he became a free agent.

"Inverness have come 𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐕𝐄!"

Reece McAlear grabs a goal back! What a strike 💥👏 pic.twitter.com/lwI9wfb8VD

— Sky Sports Scotland (@ScotlandSky) May 20, 2022

He signed for Tranmere Rovers and was subsequently loaned to Ayr.

His form at Somerset Park didn’t suggest there should be any regrets that Saints didn’t make a move in the end.

You don’t finish second in the Championship if you’re a one-man team but the expected departure of Dipo Akinyemi will surely weaken Ayr significantly.

Saints are unbeaten in their last 10 fixtures against them.

Alloa Athletic

Stefan Scougall is the only notable former player currently at the Indodrill Stadium.

Injury blighted his time at McDiarmid Park but there was never any doubting Scougall’s technical ability.

2017 | Stefan Scougall scores his first goal for St Johnstone in a 1-0 win away to Hamilton.
🎬> https://t.co/iRUXpwoQD4 pic.twitter.com/qaB1sjWBs3

— Saints On This Day (@SaintsOTD) December 9, 2022

Conor Sammon was Alloa’s talisman last season.

He’s 36 but doesn’t want to hang his boots up yet so may well be a July opponent.

Sammon has got some big clubs on his CV and Tommy Wright was keen to bring him to Perth at one point.

Alloa did well to reach the Championship play-offs but lost to Hamilton in the semi-final.

With Saints playing them away, history is in their favour.

Not only did Alex Rennie’s side famously clinch promotion to the Premier League there in 1983, they haven’t lost in the Clackmannanshire town since 1959.

Stirling Albion

As it stands, there will be no players with a notable Perth connection in the Stirling line-up.

Darren Young’s team will be a confident one though, having won the League Two title by an 11-point margin.

cinched it https://t.co/ERp2p3jLAI pic.twitter.com/qpDR4yT5vB

— (C) Stirling Albion FC (@Stirling_Albion) May 24, 2023

They last met (in the same competition) back in 2006, when Saints were 4-0 victors.

MacLean was one of the goalscorers on that occasion.

Saints lost their last game in Stirling (3-1, 2008), with future English Premier League star, Jay Rodriguez, scoring one of the goals for the hosts after Kevin James was sent off.

Stenhousemuir

If Recreation Park gives St Johnstone fans over the age of 45 a warm glow, Ochilview sends a shiver down the spine of those over 30.

Until Kelty, the 4-0 defeat there in 1995 was probably Saints’ worst ever Scottish Cup result, certainly in the modern era.

Saints have twice thrashed Stenhousemuir on their own ground since then.

And it was arguably the venue for the greatest ever comeback in 1962, when Saints came back from 5-1 down to draw 5-5, having been forced to use THREE different goalkeepers.

MacLean will be hoping for something a good deal less eventful this time around against the weakest team in the group, who finished mid-table in League Two last season.

One of the opponents will be Auchterarder’s, Euan O’Reilly.

Wright had high hopes for the winger when he was coming through the McDiarmid Park academy and, not long after his 17th birthday, O’Reilly played in the pre-season friendly against Sunderland when David Wotherspoon scored his wonder goal.