SHAUN Rooney emulated his famous great-uncle Benny yesterday afternoon when he started for St Johnstone in the Betfred Cup decider against Livingston at Hampden.
But the right back went one better than the former Morton and Partick Thistle manager by scoring what ultimately proved to be the winning goal in the first-half and then lifting the trophy.
His footballing relation was a member of the only other Perth side to play in a final at the national stadium – the climax of the Scottish Cup the McDiarmid Park club triumphed in back in 2014 was held at Parkhead– way back in 1969.
However, Celtic, whose physio that day was Benny’s father and Shaun’s great-grandfather Bob, fielded many of the Lisbon Lions and ended up winning the League Cup thanks to an early Bertie Auld goal.
“I’m over the moon for myself and my family,” said Rooney. “I can’t hide the emotion. My dad says he doesn’t drink on Sundays . . . but we will see if he has a drink today.
“I want to thank my mum. She has passed away, but this is massive for my whole family. I think everyone in the family will have a tear in their eye. I’m absolutely buzzing.
“He (Benny Rooney) is my great uncle, I don’t know if he watched it as he has dementia. I heard stories about him from my great grandpa, who was the physio at Celtic at the time and also told me all about their European Cup win. But I didn’t know he was as big as he actually is until I joined.”
The former defender was a member of the highly-regarded Willie Ormond team of the late 1960s and early 1970s and was captain when St Johnstone made what was their first ever major final appearance 52 years ago.
However, his grand-nephew, who got on the end of a Craig Conway corner and headed beyond Livingston keeper Robby McCrorie in the 32nd minute, will forever be regarded as even more of a Saints legend now.
The former Inverness Caledonian Thistle player, who only moved to McDiarmid Park in the summer, also netted vital goals in the quarter-final win over Dunfermline and the semi-final victory against Hibernian.
“It feels absolutely amazing,” said Rooney. “You couldn’t write it. I’m delighted with the whole team performance, everyone to a man was excellent today.
“Jon Guthrie was marking me tight, but I gave him a bit of movement, a wee slip of the shoulder, and I was away. It was a great header. I don’t what their keeper was waving at! It was a brilliant moment and I am absolutely delighted.”
He continued: “I’ve played in every game of the Betfred. I came to the club under Tommy Wright and I didn’t know what the new gaffer (Callum Davidson) wanted from me.
“He brought in Danny McNamara (the Republic of Ireland Under-21 right back who was on loan from Millwall in the first half of the 2020/21 season) who was excellent and I had to bide my time.
“I had the Betfred Cup games when he was away on international duty so I have to thank the manager for playing me in the quarter-final when Danny was there and fit, ready to play.
“He picked me to play and I scored a goal. Danny was away by the semi-final against Hibs so I could relax. I tried as hard as I could to get into the team. The Kilmarnock game last month killed me a bit. I had to bounce back and I did that.”
The 24-year-old admitted not having any St Johnstone supporters inside the stadium due to the coronavirus pandemic was disappointing - but he stressed it wouldn’t stop the winning side from enjoying their triumph.
“No fans changes things as we needed to create our own atmosphere,” he said. “That’s why I’m in the changing room with a microphone singing the tunes!
“It’s hard to celebrate later, the moment is sort of gone. It’s a bit like Liverpool when they won the league. When everything went back to normal it’s as though they haven’t won it when they have. It’ll be exactly the same for Rangers, even though I hate to say it.
“We just need to enjoy the night and enjoy the occasion. Nothing will take the shine off of this, we have worked hard throughout this entire tournament.”
Rooney revealed how St Johnstone, who had inflicted a rare defeat on Livingston at the Tony Macaroni Stadium in the Premiership at the start of this month, had gone into the final with a simple objective.
“When you play Livingston, you need to throw any thoughts of a game plan out of the window,” he said. “We didn’t really have a game plan, it was all about the fight, a fight for everything.
“It was about working harder than them. we’ve done that against them. that’s paid off twice where Maybe that’s the way to play against them.
“It was a bit of a nervous start. Livingston came out and played balls over the top and they were fighting for everything, but we were equal to that.
“They had us penned in for a bit, but once we got past that we scored our goal and from then on they didn’t have as many chances. It was a bit like the semi-final against Hibs. The second-half was an open game, but I felt we did enough. Both teams gave everything they had.
“The manager deserves a lot of credit for the win - but he could have put me in the side earlier! Seriously, though, I just thank him for the opportunities he’s given me.”
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