St Johnstone skipper Dave Mackay admits he was at the wind-up when he tweeted about his side’s stunning win over Rangers in the League Cup on Tuesday night saying: “Great to be part of the biggest upset ever in Scottish football!”.
In the build-up to the game, Saints had been written off despite the fact they are playing in a higher division to the Glasgow side, with the bookies making Mark Warburton’s team firm favourites to go through to the quarter-finals.
Instead, St Johnstone won 3-1 with Mackay taking to Twitter afterwards with his tongue-in-cheek post.
However, plenty of people rose to the bait with the St Johnstone player’s account being inundated with replies.
Mackay, who will lead Saints out against Dundee United in today’s Tayside derby at McDiarmid, said: “It was just a bit of a wind-up as some people had been saying we had no chance.
“You probably can’t blame them as Rangers had been absolutely flying and our form has been so up and down.
“I suppose 99% of people would have had them as favourites.
“But you have to factor in that they are playing in a lower league and we knew if we played to our best we would win the game.
“I really fancied us to do it.
“It hadn’t irritated us. We just spoke about it afterwards with people saying Rangers were sure to go through to the next round.
“You always get a few who react to a tweet but it was all just a bit of fun and light-hearted.”
Mackay is now looking for Saints to build on the result and performance against Rangers.
And he also admitted that as a defender, he is determined his side will finally keep a clean sheet for the first time this season.
He said: “We have to carry that (Rangers win) into our league form.
“There is no use winning that and then getting beaten by Dundee United.
“You love to do well in cups but first of all you want to make sure you do well in the league and we want to climb that table.
“We are better than our form and league position show.
“So we just have to go out and prove it.
“Last season, the amount of clean sheets was a huge part in where we finished.
“It seems we are making too many errors just now and they are getting punished.
“But I am sure things will turn and we will get back to keeping clean sheets once again.”
It will be a new-look United team that turns up in Perth this afternoon and one that has struggled so far this season.
However, Mackay believes Tangerines boss Jackie McNamara will turn things around after today.
He added: “When you look at United now compared to last season, it is almost a totally different side.
“Things don’t seem to be going for them but I have seen highlights and they have missed some incredible chances while losing cheap goals as well.
“They are not as bad as their league position suggests and they will pick up points. Jackie McNamara is a good manager and they have good players there.
“Everything does seem to be going against them at the minute hopefully that continues for another couple of days.”