St Johnstone players called for driver substitution during Scottish Cup parade

St Johnstone’s long-serving driver has told how the team urged him to take control of the parade bus from the stand-in driver.

Colin Docherty, of Docherty’s Midline Coaches, has driven Saints players to matches across the country for nearly 25 years but took to the top deck with Tommy Wright’s Scottish Cup-winning team for the parade through Perth after their May 17 win.

Colin said: “The driver of the bus clipped a couple of branches and the players were yelling at me to go downstairs and take over.”

He added that he believes the bus used to take the team to Glasgow played a part in their win.

“We got two new buses in March. I used the first one for an Aberdeen away game in the league and we were beaten, so that bus got binned. We used the other one against Raith Rovers in the cup and then won three in a row with the same bus.

“After the Scottish Cup semi-final I said to Callum Davidson: ‘This bus has won four games in a row’. He said to me: ‘That’s it, park it up, keep it for the final’.”