Premier Sports Cup: Booth hopeful Spartans can set out stall to shock Staggies

Posted on Friday, August 16th, 2024

For Callum Booth, a League Cup winners medal in 2021 with St Johnstone remains one of his treasured prizes.  The experienced defender now finds himself once again progressing from the Group Stages with Premiership opposition in the shape of Ross County next up for the SPFL 2 side.

Last season Booth was part of The Spartans side that battled until the dying moments against lofty opposition in the shape of Hearts in the Scottish Cup, a performance that offers optimism in yet another David v Goliath cup clash in the North Edinburgh arena.

Speaking ahead of the Last 16 tie, Booth said, “I’ve only been here for a relatively short period of time but there’s definitely been a number of big cup games the club have been associated with over years.  We had a couple of these last season in the Scottish Cup and getting to the Play-Off Final in our first season in the SPFL, they were all big games in their own right.

“It a massive game on Saturday and the furthest the Club’s been in the League Cup.  Being a home is great too and gives us that we chance to cause an upset in front of our support who will be right behind us from the off.”

Several years of Scottish Premiership experience with Partick Thistle and St Johnstone stands Booth in good stead for the visit of The Staggies. 

“Staying in the game for as long as possible is vital, especially so the first twenty minutes or so.    I think we can take a lot out of the Livingston game as well and Saturday is likely to be a fairly similar affair.  They’ll be expected to have quite a lot of the ball and be strong favourites and we’ll need to be disciplined and defend as well as we done against Livingston.

“However, at Almondvale I thought we were good when we had the ball, we kept it well and managed to catch ourselves a bit of a breather.  We stayed in the game right into the last quarter and we came up with the winning goal for our endeavours.  More of the same on Saturday and who knows what could happen.”

The clean-sheet at Livingston has been one of four in the last five games for The Spartans defence which Booth continues to be an integral part of.

“We’re obviously doing something right in that department which bodes well for a tough game on Saturday against a team that is going to be expected to create chances.  We need to put all we’ve worked on so far this season and take confidence from it as well because our defensive record has been a major factor in getting us this far in the tournament and a chance to create another wee shock.

“It’s not just at the back we’ve been performing too of course with the likes of Hendo and Cammy in the form they’ve been in, makes us a really dangerous team.

“In the start to the League season, those two have been in prim form. When you look at the quality of the goal last week against Bonnyrigg, Cammy’s probably playing some of the best football of his career and Hendo continues where he left off last season by scoring important goals for the Club.”