Rhys McCabe says Airdrieonians deserved to upset St Johnstone

Posted Sunday, January 21, 2024 by PA

Player-manager Rhys McCabe felt his Airdrieonians side were worthy of their Scottish Cup win over St Johnstone.

Craig Levein’s men were on the end of an upset thanks to Nikolay Todorov’s goal nine minutes into the second half, with the Championship side knocking out their top-tier opponents 1-0.

“I think we deserved the win,” McCabe said. “Before, the message was come and show anyone watching the game that we are a good footballing team when we are on it.

“Focus on the performance levels and if we do that we can compete. When we are on it we are a good side and I think we can compete with anyone in Scotland, especially here at home. It’s a real kind of cauldron, the pitch suits us and suits the way we want to play.”

McCabe knew that coming up against a former international manager in Levein would present his side with a stiff test, but he was pleased to emerge on the right side of it.

“It’s not often you get to test yourself,” he said. “It gives you a wee gauge to where that next level is and ultimately I’m trying to get these boys, the young players, to that level and beyond.

“This is a top-level SPL side and ex-Scotland manager, so he’s no mug.”

Levein was bitterly disappointed but had little complaints about the outcome.

The St Johnstone boss said: “That was a difficult, difficult watch and I thought, firstly, Airdrie deserved to win.

“All credit to them – I’m not taking anything away from them but I thought we were really poor.

“We never, at any point, fixed it. We continually gave the ball away and we have good players who have proven they can keep the ball and build up the play through the middle of the pitch to give us chances to score goals.

“We have to look at the footage and work out what went wrong. I pretty much know what went wrong here, then we (need to) get on the training ground this week. We’ve only got a couple of days before the Aberdeen game to try (and get) ourselves back where we were.”