ST JOHNSTONE chairman Geoff Brown yesterday issued a rallying cry to apathetic Perth fans.
While First Division rivals Queen of the South are demanding half of Hampden for next month's Scottish Cup final, Saints have sold just 4,000 tickets for Sunday's semi-final clash with Rangers. Brown is confident Perth fans will make a late dash for
briefs and he'd love to see Saints match the Doonhamers by reaching their first ever Scottish Cup final.
But he admitted: "So far the take-up has been a bit disappointing but now that we know it's Rangers we'll face I expect more tickets to shift. It's vital the manager and players get the best of backing at Hampden. We took 5,000 to Glasgow to play Celtic this time last year and the team did us proud.
"Dumfries is smaller than Perth and Queens had nearly 10,000 celebrating their win over Aberdeen. What a day they had. Maybe we've spoilt our fans by reaching three semi-finals and winning the Challenge Cup in the last year.
"I'm sure the community will rally round in the next few days. After coming so close to beating Celtic in last year's semi-final we'd love to beat Rangers and set-up a final with Queen of the South."
Manager Derek McInnes believes a win over Rangers on Sunday could be the first step towards reclaiming a place in the Scottish Premier League. St Johnstone narrowly missed promotion a year ago under Owen Coyle, and McInnes wants to make a stronger challenge in the First Division next season.
"The Scottish Cup is something we all want to win but its benefits are more than just silverware," McInnes said.
"Every penny is a prisoner for many clubs in the SFL, including ourselves, and I feel that if we can get just a few more players then we will have a great chance of winning the league next season."
The full article contains 332 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
