The SFA claimed it as a “world first”.
Given that Graeme Shinnie was tasked with lifting the Scottish Cup at Hampden Park in 2015 without a camera strapped to his chest, we can safely assume that it wasn’t a trend-setting world first.
Twelve months earlier on the pitch at Celtic Park, Dave Mackay was happy to follow orders.
“Look at this,” shouted the St Johnstone captain, charging towards his euphoric team-mates as the seconds ticked away to the presentation of the oldest trophy in world football.
“It’s a camera for the boys,” came the last command of the afternoon to a group of men who had just defined their careers and changed a club’s history and destiny.
“Nae swearing!”
After a quizzical look from a shirtless Chris Millar; a point of the finger from a baby-faced David Wotherspoon; a V for victory salute by Brian Easton; two fists in the air from Stevie May in a jester’s hat, the type of which only ever gets worn at cup finals; a tongue stuck out by Nigel Hasselbaink, off Mackay went for his date with silverware.
“I remember a woman with a lanyard thing coming up to me and saying ‘you need to put this on’,” Mackay recalled. “Technology has never been my strong suit.
“I didn’t know what it was really but she told me to watch what I was saying.
“When I look back at the photos I’d probably rather it wasn’t on but you just follow orders.”
WhatsApp – what’s that?
It would take more than a GoPro camera to take the slightest bit of gloss off an occasion that will forever be St Johnstone’s first.
Ten years on from the 2-0 victory over Dundee United, the technology point still stands, though.
When it came to organising a reunion, Mackay was never likely to take charge.
“We didn’t even have a group chat until Midge (Millar) set one up recently with the anniversary coming up,” he said. “He did it late on a Saturday night and it was one message after another after that.
“I wasn’t even on WhatsApp when I was at St Johnstone! I think I was the only one.
“I didn’t really know what it was. I’d hear them all talking about it but I was thinking: ‘I’m not joining that’.
“It’s great when you get the chance to see each other and from time to time you’ll message or phone one of the boys.
“You pick up where you left off. It’s like being part of that team again.
“We’ve all got busy lives and as much as you’d love to keep in contact with everybody, it’s almost impossible. So the club organising an anniversary dinner for November is perfect.”
Perfect.
It’s a word that sits comfortably with May 17, chiefly because St Johnstone’s relationship with the Scottish Cup was as far removed from that description as you can possibly imagine.
Mackay wouldn’t have admitted it publicly at the time but seeing themselves as a semi-final club had seeped into the fabric of the club.
“It did become a thing,” he said. “In both cup competitions, actually.
“Most of the time we were unlucky with the draw.
“The only one that I’d say we got a really good draw was Motherwell in the Scottish Cup (in 2011).
“But the performance we produced that day was so bad.
“I know I was dreadful.
“Myself and Danny Grainger had a tough afternoon against (Jamie) Murphy and (Chris) Humphrey. Not for the first time!
“So many of us under-performed and within about 15 minutes it was all but over.
“We were 3-0 down very quickly.
“That was the sorest one, no doubt about it.
“Motherwell were a good team but we had a realistic chance of beating them.
“We just froze on the day and that’s when it becomes part of your psyche.
“When you’re losing badly to a team on your level you do start thinking: ‘Maybe there is a bit of an issue here’.
“It was definitely fair to say that there was a psychological weakness.
“I remember Peter Enckelman being sent into the dressing room from the warm-up because he was so nervous and was making a mess of things.
“He was one of our most experienced players and had played at a really high level, including an FA Cup final not long before.”
Smashing the glass ceiling
Every cup-winning team will identify the semi-final as a significant chapter in the story. It’s stating the obvious. For St Johnstone, though, you can multiply that by whichever number you choose.
The club had never got past that stage of the Scottish Cup in its 100-plus year history and this team had never got past that stage in either of the major knockout competitions.
It was the heaviest of their last-four losses, 4-0 against Aberdeen at Tynecastle in the League Cup, that turned out to be the transformative one.
“We didn’t play terribly but Aberdeen were relentless that day,” said Mackay. “The manner of their victory probably helped us in the Scottish Cup.
“It was so convincing that they probably thought they only had to turn up.
“Del (Derek McInnes) and Doc (Tony Docherty) wouldn’t have had that mentality but some of the players might have.
“For us, the hurt definitely helped us.
“And so many of us were in our late 20s or early 30s and knew this was probably ‘now or never’ time.
“It was a case of: ‘How many more of these chances are you going to get?’
“Really, we should have been 2-0 down in the game rather than just 1-0.
“Rooney had a one v one just before half-time, as I remember. If that goes in, mentally we’re done.
“We’d have been shot to pieces. It would have been ‘semi-final losers again’ and ‘Aberdeen again’.
“So going in only a goal behind was important.
“Then when we scored, all of a sudden they started to look physically shattered.
“A few of the boys were saying on the pitch: ‘Look, they’re gone here’.
“The two goals came out of nothing – the first was a long ball from myself, Stevie wins the header and he plays the one-two with Macca.
“Then late in the game, I made a bit of an error and misjudged a cross. (Niall) McGinn gets in at the back post and should have scored.
“Luck was with us for a change.
“Getting the win was such a big psychological hurdle. We’d beaten the team we didn’t want to get in the draw. If we were being honest, we wanted either Dundee United or Rangers.
“I genuinely think it was the most nervous I’d ever been before a game – the realisation that this could well be the last chance.
“It had got to the fans as well.
“We didn’t take as many with us as we had for the League Cup game.
“It was hanging over the club as a whole that we don’t get to finals.
“So you can’t underestimate how big a release finally changing that was for everybody.
“None of what the club went on to achieve, winning the double, would have happened if we hadn’t ended that hoodoo.”
Name on the cup
Wisdom after the event would have you believe St Johnstone were transformed from a club with the most overpowering Scottish Cup curse in the country to one who were suddenly destined to win it.
All because their semi-final match-winner’s name and shirt number happened to be the date of the final.
“I never bought into the stars aligning stuff,” said Mackay. “Don’t get me wrong, it was a hell of a coincidence that the player who was scoring all our goals had May 17 on his back.
“It was a great wee story and would have been even bigger these days with all the social media – or if Stevie had scored in the final like he should have rather than punching it in!
“There were far more important things in our favour.
“They had the bigger name players – some of whom went on to have amazing careers – and most people expected them to win.
“But Dundee United were the opposite of Aberdeen for us – we had a history of beating them.
“And Tommy (Wright) had got into Jackie McNamara’s head.
“He got everything right that week.
“I don’t know if he knew the team Jackie was going to pick. But whether he did or whether he didn’t, just saying it worked a treat.
“He got it spot on that Ryan Gauld and John Souttar would be on the bench.
“Jackie would constantly talk about the way we played and how physical we were.
“We were made out to be the polar opposite of them.
“He’d say things like: ‘It’s harder to create than it is to defend’.
“That’s fine but it wasn’t as if we’d been nicking 1-0 wins against them. We were scoring twos and threes.
“Yes, we’re not conceding many against you but we’re scoring plenty. We had the balance right.
“We absolutely got into his head. I’m sure of it.
“Jack was a wee bit naïve and let it get the better of him.
“I think Tommy and him get on fine now but there was a bit of dislike between the two of them back then as well.
“The whole thing played into our hands.
“We loved being the wee diddy club and the team that was written off. And we loved knowing that another side didn’t like playing against us.
“Dundee United clearly didn’t enjoy facing us that season. The results show it.
“And as much as they had very good individual players who could hurt you, we knew they had weaknesses.
“I think we had a better central midfield and a better all-round defensive unit. And you’d have taken Alan Mannus all day long over Cierzniak.
“As a rivalry, we always saw it as our biggest game.
“I know St Johnstone fans would say Dundee but as players at that time we saw United as our main rivals and there was a real edge to it.”
Leaders across the pitch
Mackay wasn’t a captain who got himself unnecessarily involved in the build-up to a game – or came out with Churchillian speeches in the dressing room. That didn’t change for the week of the biggest game of his career.
“The big unknown for us was it was our first final and you can never be sure if you’re going to rise to the occasion,” he said.
“Our last league game was up in Inverness, which was a strange afternoon.
“Tommy picked a pretty strong team. It was a terrible game, nothing to play for and in the back of your mind you are worried about getting injured and missing the final.
“There’s no two ways about it.
“After it was done, I’d have been quite happy just making it a normal few days but we went to Dunkeld for two or three nights.
“I roomed with Ando – a couple of nights is as much as you can take with him, especially knowing you’ve got to share a room on the Friday before the game as well!
“Joking aside, myself and Ando got on great. We’d roomed together for years and travelled into training every day with each other.
“You knew he certainly wouldn’t be getting too excited about a cup final. It’s just another game to him, or so he made out anyway.
“Macca got the short straw, rooming with Midgey. He’d have been a nervous wreck!
“With the group we had, I always felt as if there were four or five captains.
“I didn’t need to worry about looking out for anybody that week.
“If you look back at the ones who were youngest, Mikey (O’Halloran) was playing with confidence.
“Spoony had plenty of experience by that point.
“Stevie was having the season of his life and thriving under the spotlight.
“And James Dunne was a strong character and good professional.
“When we got out on the pitch we stuck up for each other.
“In that team, some words were thrown about that you might not get away with these days but it was always for the right reasons and never personal.
“Any arguments were soon sorted in the dressing room at half-time or full-time.
“It was a family.
“Without consciously thinking about it, we did look out for each other.”
The Wright note
Mackay added: “Tommy did his main talk in the hotel. We stayed in East Kilbride for the semi-final and final.
“It was at times like that when he was really good.
“He made us believe we were going to win this.
“His best ever one was Rosenborg away.
“I’d been thinking: ‘Anything better than a 3-0 defeat against this lot is like a victory’.
“But by the time Tommy had done his team talk I was leaving the hotel convinced we would get a result. That’s the power of a good pre-match speech.
“For the final it was a case of: ‘You’ve done it plenty of times against them before, you’re the better team, play the way you’ve played against them in the league, look out for each other and we’ll go and beat them again’.
“It wasn’t being arrogant. We knew we weren’t good enough to think we just had to turn up to win.
“But he had belief in us and made us believe in ourselves.”
McNamara’s team selection inflated that belief.
“Ryan Dow was a really good player and he was good on the day,” said Mackay.
“But if I’m a full-back and I see I’m playing against Gary Mackay-Steven or Stuart Armstrong, who could play wide at times, I’d take Ryan Dow every day.
“He played on the left, Mackay-Steven was on the right up against Easty (Brian Easton) and Armstrong was more central.
“Mackay-Steven could be unbelievable on his day. He was inconsistent but he could make you look like fool.
“Jackie changed their personnel and tweaked the way they would play with us in mind.
“Gone was the attitude of: ‘We’re Dundee United and this is our style of play’.
“The game itself went in a blur.
“We went on holiday to Cyprus that summer and for some reason the highlights were on in a bar one day.
“I hadn’t realised that Ando had scored right on half-time.
“In my mind it was midway through the first half.
“If you’d asked me to guess, I’d have said about 25 minutes rather than 45.
“And Macca’s goal, I’d have said 60-something rather than 84.
“That shows how much you’re caught up in it all.
“After Brian Graham missed a chance from a set-play he would normally put away, I did allow myself to think it was going to happen.
“And in injury-time I said to Midge: ‘We’re actually going to do this’.
“We were the better team in the game as a whole but we got breaks at the right time as everybody knows – them hitting the post at 0-0 and Alan Mannus landing on the ball after Ciftci’s free-kick had come back off the bar.
“These wee moments build your belief that it’s going to be your day.
“Paul Paton and John Rankin were two good players but I thought we had an edge in that area and that proved to be the case.
“Midge and James Dunne did very well.
“James was one of the worst training players you’d ever see. Not in terms of quality, just that he would go through the motions.
“But when it mattered in games he did really well for us – a great loan signing, a hard character who fitted into what we were all about.
“I didn’t often play with Spoony in front of me but he did very well in dealing with Andy Robertson.
“Across the board we had sevens out of 10. Nobody dipped below that and there wasn’t a stand-out man of the match. United had a few sevens but a lot who were below par and the occasion seemed to get to them.
“Ando would have been the closest player to me when the final whistle blew.
“As much as I like to wind him up, it’s great to share moments like that with people you’ve played together with for so long.
“There were a few of us who had taken very similar paths.
“You hope to win stuff when you start your career but you don’t expect to.
“To finally do it with good mates made it so much better.”
The ones who couldn’t be there
With trophy and chest camera safely returned, elation and sense of achievement was mixed in with poignancy and reflection.
“It was my daughter Louise’s birthday the next day,” said Mackay. “She was turning 12.
“It was great to get her down on the pitch with my son, Callum, who was just a baby.
“You do have moments when you get a bit emotional.
“I’m sure it was the same for all the boys.
“My dad, Gordon, died a few months after my first cup final with Dundee. But he was in hospital at that time after having a massive stroke.
“He actually had it at Dundee’s quarter-final replay against Falkirk at Dens.
“They didn’t think he’d make it through that night but he lasted until Christmas Eve.
“So he didn’t get to go to that final in 2003 and I know how much it would have meant to him to see me lifting the Scottish Cup.
“You do think of people you would have loved to have been there – particularly when I went up into the stand to see Laura.
“There I was taking Callum down with me but we had lost our other son, David, just two years earlier.
“Wee moments like that make you a bit emotional and bring home the magnitude of the day.
“Everybody comes into the dressing room in dribs and drabs.
“Some are away doing media stuff, some doing drugs tests or whatever.
“There’s a high for five or 10 minutes then it’s a bit of a lull. You’re exhausted basically. And it’s a case of: ‘What have we just done?’
“It’s a bit of a comedown until you’re back on the bus and that’s when it starts again.
“We all went back to McDiarmid and when the younger ones made their way down the town to show off their medals, a few of us stayed.
“The drinks kept coming down to Tommy’s office. Special memories.
“I feel so sorry for the boys who did the double a few years after us.
“They didn’t get the full experience.
“It was unbelievable what they did and they couldn’t even celebrate with their families.
“I can’t get my head around each club not getting say 100 tickets for their immediate family.
“As much as I was delighted for them, it was sad to see them have to FaceTime people on the Hampden pitch.
“They’re in the history books for an incredible achievement but those lads deserved the whole experience that we got.
“My wee boy is 10 now and he loves his football. So we do look at the photos and talk about it sometimes.
“I don’t actually know where the medal is. It’s certainly not on show. Laura will have put it somewhere secure.”
A game too far
The first player to get his hands on the Scottish Cup trophy was also the first of the team to hang up his boots.
Mackay was at the peak of his powers in 2014 but only had a season-and-a-half of football left in him before the pain of a hip injury became intolerable, ironically in a losing cup semi-final.
“My body had given up on me by the time of that semi against Hibs,” he said.
“In hindsight, I wish I hadn’t played in that game.
“It was probably one of my worst ever performances.
“I was in pain that whole season, trying to get myself ready for games.
“I wouldn’t have played if I didn’t think I could get through it – and Tommy wouldn’t have played me if he didn’t think I was ready – but the hip just wouldn’t allow me to kick the ball properly.
“I didn’t mean it obviously but I was almost cheating somebody of the chance to play in a semi-final.
“I don’t think I trained more than one day a week that season and I was the type of player who needed to train regularly to be up to speed.
“Playing in constant pain was horrific.
“Fair play to Ando and Midge who have kept going all these years. They were always fit boys.
“I don’t think I’d have enjoyed going down the levels – it would have frustrated the life out of me – but they just love playing.”
Mackay said at the time that he would have retired a happy man if it had all ended on May 18, 2014.
The passing of a decade hasn’t changed his mind.
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