St Mirren 0 Dundee United 0: Time is right for Lennon to permit final flourish

Graeme Macpherson

Football Writer

Monday 11 March 2013

AT last the elephant in the room can be acknowledged, fully.

John Rankin was sent off for Dundee United

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Graeme Macpherson

St Mirren's build-up to this weekend's Scottish Communities League Cup final has largely involved pretending that it was not happening. It will be the most significant match in the club's season and yet, ever since beating Celtic in the semi-final in late January, the mantra repeated by manager Danny Lennon and his players was that they would address it only when the time was right. That time has now arrived.

This humdrum goalless draw with Dundee United was the last chore that had to be fulfilled before St Mirren could turn their attention to the Hampden meeting with Hearts this Sunday afternoon. As Lennon acknowledged, for many of his players it will be the biggest games of their careers. Others, though, have been over the course before.Three players remain from the St Mirren side that lost in the 2010 final of the same competition and, with Lee Mair and David Barron both struggling with injuries, it may mean Graham Carey will be the only survivor to take to the field. So demoralising was that defeat by a Rangers side who played the last 20 minutes of the game with just nine men, it is probably just as well that there are precious few still around to relive the tale. Carey was on loan from Celtic at that time and the defeat stayed with him for quite some time afterwards. "It still gives me nightmares," the Irishman admitted on Saturday. "That was one which took a while to get over, especially given Rangers had gone down to nine men. We thought we'd have the legs to beat them but it wasn't the case. It probably took me the rest of the season to get over it. It was a tough one. "Personally, I didn't have a good record at Hampden prior to this year's semi-final. There were a few Youth Cup games and they never really went well but hopefully we can get the victory this week."That 2010 showpiece was St Mirren's first final in the competition since 1955. Carey admitted he not expect to reach another one so soon after. "It's not very often a club like St Mirren get to a final but it's good that we have one again so soon," he said. "It's going to be a tough game. Hearts have experienced players and they are bringing them back into the team now. It will be a good game and two well-matched teams so that's good for the neutrals as well."Hampden is not a bogey ground for us at the minute and hopefully we can keep that going. Both teams will go into it fairly confident so it will be good."St Mirren looked to be playing within themselves on Saturday, for fear of picking up injuries, and with United missing the injured Johnny Russell and Jon Daly it made for a game of few chances.United, who had John Rankin sent off for a challenge on St Mirren's John McGinn, used the occasion to debut three players. Young striker Robert Thomson, defender Marcus Tornstrand and Rory Boulding, the striker who last week signed a deal until the end of the season. Much had been expected of the Englishman when he signed a three-year deal with Kilmarnock last summer after excelling at Livingston, only for the Ayrshire club to free him just six months later. Now he has a chance to reignite his career."I definitely feel I didn't get a chance to show what I could do at Kilmarnock – I only started one game and came on as a sub in three other games," he said. "So I definitely didn't get my chance and I've no idea why it worked out like that."Quite a few teams wanted to sign me at the end of last season so maybe they signed me because of that, without really seeing me play. It was a frustrating time but I just carried on working hard and I've now got an opportunity at Dundee United."

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St Mirren 0 Dundee United 0: Time is right for Lennon to permit final flourish

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