Simo Valakari was speaking to myself and other members of the media in the aftermath of St Johnstone’s defeat to Celtic at Hampden Park.
How do you reflect on that? A tough afternoon?
“Of course, not the result we wanted, but at the same time, if I reflect on the whole 90 minutes, we pretty much knew how the game would go.
“We stayed solid—what was it, 30 minutes? But then, as always, a couple of not-so-good decisions with the ball, and you make those, and they can feel it. They can smell it. And they punish you. And that’s what happened.
“Then at halftime, the cup dream – it was gone. The only thing to play for anymore was the pride. The pride to play for this beautiful club, play for our fans. And I think our players, in the second half, they went. They went there, and they showed character. They showed that. But at the end of the day, congratulations to Celtic. They deserve it, of course, to go through. And no complaints about the result or anything, you know.”
How much do those periods come down to concentration? Because you say you showed a fair bit of evidence that you’re comfortable within the game, but then the game gets away from you very quickly?
“Yeah, but I would use the other way around. I use the example of Celtic – the game is 5-0, 87 minutes played, and they still do the same things they did in the first five minutes. Still doing the same things – same runs, ball out, same there.
“We did 30 minutes, doing the things we were practicing, then we think, ‘Okay, let’s try something different.’ And then – boom – everything goes. Everything goes out of our hands. And yes, we need to learn that. We just need to be humble, patient, just do the things that are working.”
Did you see enough – despite the scoreline in the second half – to make you believe that you can stay in this league with those players?
“Yeah, that’s the thing. These games are totally different. This was a cup semi-final against a top, top, top, top opponent. And I can’t predict the future, but I can say it was a very good cup journey. And these cup games, between the league games, they were like a breath of fresh air to us—out of the pressure of the Premiership. And it was the same today. This was a cup semi-final: free, go out and play.
“Now, tomorrow, we are back to what means most to our club, to ourselves – these Premiership games. And I’ve said it a long time: I see what my players can do. But if we use this game as an example, it’s still there—that thing that affects us. We can do a lot of good things, but then our bad things are dragging us down. And they have been there a long time. And that’s the thing we need to fix. If we can do that, I believe our level is good enough to compete and to stay in this league.”
Callum McFadden 