St Johnstone’s Shaun Rooney scored the Perth side’s goal in the recent 1-1 Betfred Cup quarter-final draw with Dunfermline, a game which saw Callum Davidson’s team eventually reach the semi-finals after a 4-3 penalty shootout victory.
In the semi-final to be played at Hampden Park next month, the Saints will take on Hibernian with a chance of reaching a first league cup final since 1998.
Didn’t do himself justice
Rooney has played in a cup semi-final before, when he was an Inverness player last season. However, the player feels that he didn’t do himself justice in the 3-0 Scottish Cup defeat to Hearts. The 24-year-old is hoping to make up for that should he feature for St Johnstone against Hibernian.
The player did admit that it was a great experience to be playing at Scotland’s national stadium, aside from the outcome of the game and his own performance.
“I went to Hampden with Inverness for a (Scottish Cup) semi-final and that was an unbelievable experience” he said.
The player identified just what went wrong in his previous visit to Hampden. The defining moment being Hearts’ second goal, which all but killed the game.
“The game got away from us”
“I’m sure it will be again – just hopefully with a different result this time. During stages of that game against Hearts we were always in it. But the game got away from us when the second goal went in.”
Rooney then offered up a withering assessment of his own performance on the day against Hearts.
“It was hard to take. I thought I was Hearts’ best player that day! I’m always pretty honest about how I’ve played” he concluded.