St Johnstone 1 - 0 Brechin City: Single Collin Samuel strike is enough for Saints

Published on Tuesday 22 March 2011 18:33

St Johnstone 1 Samuel (37) Brechin City 0

Collin Samuel booked St Johnstone's place in the Scottish Cup semi-final with a first half winner against Brechin City at McDiarmid Park.

The Irn-Bru Second Division side had held Saints to a 2-2 draw in the first game at Glebe Park but Samuel's angled drive after 37 minutes effectively ended hopes of a replay shock.

The visitors rarely threatened in what was a rather tepid cup tie and only careless finishing prevented the margin of victory being larger for the Perth men.

St Johnstone will now contest their fifth semi-final in four years and will take on either Motherwell or Dundee United at Hampden Park on 16 April for the right to face Celtic or Aberdeen in the final.

Afterwards manager Derek McInnes revealed he has a dream of taking Saints to the final. He said: "Right from the outset I has a real belief.

"Maybe that's me dreaming but I believe in the players and I believe we can be successful.

"We need to step it up and go in to the semi-final in good shape and we look forward to it.

"I think we have to believe. I know we can't win the league but we can win a cup. I firmly believe that."

"I have lost two semi finals here as a player and two as a manager and all of them to the eventual winners but we are in a semi-final again, 90 minutes away from making the next step."

The one downside for Saints was Peter MacDonald late booking for a foul on Gerry McLauchlan which will see him banned for the semi-final.

McInnes added: "It is a very harsh booking. The ball came out of the air and he was just following it. These boys don't get to the semi-finals very often and for him to miss out on a semi-final because of that is very disappointing."

Brechin came close to grabbing a shock lead in the 31st minute when Saints keeper Peter Enckelman had to throw himself full length to keep out Gary Fusco's powerful drive from 16 yards.

The key moment came six minutes later when Murray Davidson, who will join up with the Scotland squad in Spain tomorrow ahead of Sunday's friendly with Brazil in London, lobbed the ball in to Samuel and, although his first attempt was blocked by Gerry McLauchlan, the former falkirk and Dundee United striker held off the Brechin defender before rifling past Nelson from a tight angle.

In the second half, Brechin came out with a more positive approach and that helped the cup tie to warm up a bit but, inevitably the Glebe park part-timers began to tire towards the end.

Peter MacDonald should have clinched victory for Saints in the 85th minute when he only had Nelson to beat from 12 yards but he blasted over the bar to the groans of the increasingly nervy home support.

Brechin rallied again towards the end and won a late corner and the Saints fans were happy to hear the final whistle.

Brechin manager Jim Weir, who got a testimonial as a St Johnstone player and whose wife still works at the Perth club, is hoping to follow his former club all the way to the final.

"I was delighted with the effort of our players," he said. "You have to give the players credit for coming to an SPL ground and only losing by the odd goal.

"Maybe if we had got in front early it might have been a different game but they scored before half time.

"I am disappointed because I am very proud to be the manager of Brechin.

"But I wish St Johnstone well and if there is any club I would want to win the cup it is them because they had a big part to play in my football career.

"I wish them all the best in the semi-final and hopefully they can go all the way and I will probably be there to support them."

Referee: S Conroy

Attendance: 3,891

St Johnstone: Enckelman, Maybury, Grainger, Anderson, MacKay, Davidson, Millar, Craig, Invincibile, Samuel, MacDonald. Subs: Smith, Jackson, Moon, May, Caddis..

Brechin: Nelson, McLean, Cook, McLauchlan, Moyes, Janczyk, Fusco, Molloy, Byers, McAllister, McKenna. Subs: Scott, King, McKay, Archdeacon, White.

Dundee United or Motherwell v St Johnstone

Aberdeen v Celtic

Games to be played on 16/17 April.