St Johnstone manager Craig Levein has revealed he’s never known full-time elation to despair and back again like the emotional conclusion to the Perth club’s fight to stay in the Premiership.
After Saints beat Motherwell 2-1, the players and staff were forced to endure a few minutes’ wait while Ross County tried to find a winner against Aberdeen.
Home fans even managed to have Levein believing that a final punch in the gut had been landed by County, only to eventually discover that he (and plenty of others) had fallen for “the best wind-up ever”.
When clarification arrived that Don Cowie’s men could only manage a 2-2 draw and Saints had survived on goal difference, the staying-up celebrations could begin in front of over 700 Saints fans.
Asked whether he was happy he made the choice to return to management in November, Levein said: “Was I glad to be back in it? I wasn’t after 90 minutes today – I thought I was going to be carried out in a box!
“I’m not kidding.
“I have never had an experience of that elation and then going right through the floor when I thought they’d scored.
“That was stressful!
“The wait on the pitch was crazy because we had no idea what was happening.
“The Motherwell fans got me a belter – it was the best wind-up ever!
“They totally got me.
“I knew Aberdeen were down to 10 men and it was 2-2 so once they start cheering you think the worst.
“I thought that was it, we were going into the play-offs.
“I thought it for about a minute until someone told me it was a wind-up and the game was 2-2.”
‘Real team spirit’
Nicky Clark and Adama Sidibeh put Saints 2-0 up, with Dimitar Mitov saving a Theo Bair penalty.
And a Motherwell goal in injury-time was too late for the hosts.
“We played well, we fought hard and showed a real team spirit,” said Levein.
“I felt that’s what got us over the line – we had boys coming off the pitch knackered because they put so much into it.
“It’s such a big thing for the club to remain in the top division because I don’t know what would have come with us going into the play-offs.
“Thankfully, we won’t find out.
“It has been a hard job, cajoling the players every week and trying to get them into a good headspace mainly.
“But the players have been good, they’ve put so much effort in. We are all tired but chuffed.”
Squad rebuild
Levein will now set his mind to building a new squad over the summer.
“I can start doing stuff for next season now because so far we’ve not been able to do anything,” he said.
“Normally I’d be a lot further forward and have half a dozen things done, but we’ve not been able to.
“So we’ll have to get our skates on. It’ll be a difficult recruitment period.
“But the main thing is we’re doing it for the top flight, that’s the most important thing.”
He added: “I’ve loved it, it’s been great.
“There’s a lot of work to do and it will take a bit of time, but there’s enough encouragement for me from the players we have signed for next season to look forward to coming back.
“I’ll have a break, a few glasses of wine and be ready to go again.”
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