Worse than McCoist? Warburton’s men crash out the League Cup to St Johnstone

Sevco’s dreams of the quadruple died a death tonight as St Johnstone handed out some home truths to the runaway Championship leaders.

A 3-1 scoreline barely reflected the gulf in class between the teams as Mark Warburton’s All Stars were outclassed in every area of the park by a team that has lost all four away matches in the Premiership.

Twelve months ago, under the management of Ally McCoist, Sevco defeated St Johnstone 1-0 in the League Cup but despite their 100% Championship record there was little prospect of a repeat of that result.

Looking ahead to the match, Warbo, who used to work from 6am to 11pm as a city trader, said: “I don’t think the gap between the Championship and the Premier League is quite as big as it is down south. I think it’ll be a good challenge and we’re very much looking forward to that fixture.

“We have to go into every competition with the aim of winning that competition. We’re in good form right now, we’re in good shape, we’re physically strong, we’re scoring goals, we’re keeping clean sheets, so we expect to go into any game and offer a very firm challenge.”

Much was expected of former Wigan aces Martyn Waghorn, Rob Kiernan and James Tavernier with club captain Lee Wallace claiming before the match that he was confident of winning his first senior medal.

Backed by over 20,000 fans the home side held out for 19 minutes before Murray Davidson opened the scoring from close range after Michael O’Halloran left Waldo chasing shadows.

St Johnstone should have doubled their lead three minutes later but Steven McLean skied his shot over the bar after another probing run by O’Halloran.

The small pocket of St Johnstone fans didn’t have long to wait to celebrate a second goal with Simon Lappin drilling in a 20 yarder after finding himself unmarked from a David Wotherspoon corner.

Any hopes of a second half revival were over within a minute of the restart when O’Halloran easily raced away from the iron curtain defence before steering his shot beyond Wes Foderingham.

Tavernier scored a consolation for Warbo’s men in the 62^nd minute but the Premiership side held on to their lead to book a place in the last eight of the League Cup.