St Johnstone chairman Steve Brown reckons it was written in the stars the Perth club would be paired with Aberdeen when the League Cup semi-final draw was made.
When Saints edged out Morton at Cappielow in the quarters and Derek McInnes’s Dons got the better of Motherwell, Brown says he had a sneaking suspicion Sod’s law would see the man who spent almost four successful years at McDiarmid Park standing between Saints and a national final.
The Perth chief has masses of respect for what McInnes and assistant Tony Docherty achieved during their spell in charge of his club.
That said, though, Brown admits there will be no room for sentiment when the two clubs clash at Tynecastle on Saturday for a spot in the League Cup showpiece.
“I knew we were going to get drawn with Aberdeen,” he said.
“I said to Tommy Wright on the morning of the draw that they’d come out first and then it would be us, or it would be the other way about.
“It was written to happen that way because of the link with Derek McInnes. Del had great cup runs here, but we couldn’t just make that breakthrough past the semis.
“So with him at Aberdeen now, it was a certainty that the clubs would be drawn against each other.
“I’ve got so much respect for Derek. He did a very good job here and is respected by everyone he worked with at St Johnstone.
“I was speaking to Tony Docherty the other day, but when that game starts, they’ll be desperate to win for their team and we’ll be desperate for St Johnstone to win.
“That’s football. You can be friends with people but still want to beat them.”
Fans of both clubs will no doubt be searching for omens ahead of Saturday’s tussle at Tynecastle, and McInnes probably does not need reminding about his record when it came to semi-finals with St Johnstone.
Despite reaching three semi-finals as a manager and two as a player, McInnes ending up on the losing side in all five, and Saints supporters would want to see that trend continue in his new guise as boss of the weekend’s opponents.
McInnes was recently quoted as saying that if his Dons do not win the trophy he would like to see his old club Saints go on to clinch the silverware, and Brown feels much the same way.
He continued: “I’m desperate for us to beat them and get to the final, but if we don’t then I’d like to see Aberdeen lift the trophy.
“Not so much for Aberdeen as a club, but on a personal level to see Derek and Doc do well. The pair of them have always been complimentary about St Johnstone since they left.
“Derek is a genuine guy, he’s very intelligent and a straight talker. He’s so methodical and he’s just a likeable guy he’s really down to earth and he’s done a lot in the game.
“A lot of people tend to forget that that he’s played on the continent, he’s played with Rangers when they were a very good team, he’s been down at Millwall, so he’s no mug.
“I think he should just be concentrating on finishing second in the league and we’ll have the League Cup final place.
“If he loved us that much..”
Around 3,800 Saints fans are expected to make the trip to Edinburgh this weekend hoping to see their team earn a spot in the League Cup final, and Brown is likely to be more nervous than most of them given what’s at stake.
However, he, along with the rest of the McDiarmid Park hierarchy, is determined to enjoy the day out in the capital as best he can.
It has already been a memorable year for Saints, what with their European exploits this season, and the chairman concedes that lifting the League Cup trophy on March 16 would rank right up there among the club’s greatest ever achievements.
“Beating Rosenborg earlier in the year was the highlight of watching football for me,” he continued.
“That was just fantastic and that’s probably because it was so unexpected. But getting to the League Cup final would be up there because we’ve not had too many finals at St Johnstone over the years.
“We’ve had one in my lifetime and we lost it to Rangers when Dick Advocaat was the manager.
“So to get back to another final would be amazing, and with all due respect to the other teams left in, there’s a genuine chance of winning.
“In the past there has been Celtic and Rangers waiting for you there and a few times we ran them close. We lost on penalties before but we’ve just not been able to get over the line and do it.
“If we go a step further this time and get there then it would be brilliant for the club and the fans. But all the other teams are saying that as well because we all believe we’re capable of going on to lift the trophy.
“So the optimism and the excitement we’ve got this week will be the same at Aberdeen, Inverness and Hearts.”