St Johnstone striker Chris Kane gave Craig Levein his biggest adrenaline rush since he returned to the dugout.
But it would have been a different story if he hadn’t tucked away the rebound from his injury-time penalty that was saved.
“I don’t think he knows I had a heart attack five years ago!” Levein joked after Saints’ dramatic 1-0 victory over St Mirren.
“Honestly, just put the ball in the net, you know what I mean!
“But all credit to him.
“He stepped up and took the penalty and then put the rebound in.”
He added: “It’s a drug.
“I’ve gone from down here to up there in a quick space of time.
“There’s something intoxicating about it.
“I honestly didn’t know Chris was going to take it – I thought it was going to be Graham (Carey).
“The last thing I’d have wanted was a dispute who was on it.
“Graham was a good team-mate in that situation and didn’t create any hassle.
“Obviously Kano has been practicing that one!”
Moving up the table
The game was drifting towards a 0-0, with the two teams cancelling each other out for most of the contest.
But Liam Gordon was fouled three-and-a-half minutes into stoppage time and Saints are now 10th in the table.
“I thought it was fairly scrappy match at times,” said Levein.
“It was a bit bitty.
“In spells we had a wee bit of control in the game then it would fall away and St Mirren put us under pressure and our goalkeeper had to make a few good saves.
“But in general I thought our defending was excellent.
“The important thing is we won the match.
“I had been talking about there had been improvement in our previous two matches and our players had been working really hard and were beginning to take on board the stuff we had been talking about.
“But we needed evidence. That’s all we could get today, three points. I was pleased with it.
“The biggest evidence of improvement is points.
“We just want to put a run together now and the next game against Motherwell becomes hugely important.
“We’ll see who’s available and then go and try to win another one.”
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