St Johnstone manager Simo Valakari insists his team will dare to dream after beating Livingston to set up a Scottish Cup semi-final showdown with Celtic.
Graham Carey’s stunning second-half effort was the difference but Saints had to ride their luck after Livingston wasted a series of good chances in a dominant first-half display.
The last-four draw took place immediately after the televised clash in West Lothian and Valakari admits Saints – cup winners in 2014 and 2021 – could not have asked for a harder tie.
Valakari said: “We can dare to dream, it’s all about the cup – dreaming.
“As Barry Douglas said to our players after the game, you can play a long career and never play a semi-final at the national stadium – so it’s a beautiful day.
“We get the toughest opponent of all but we will go and enjoy it.
“It’s in the history of our club and everyone knows it and we want to write our name into history now. We will enjoy this and now we’re back to the Premiership.”
Valakari conceded his team could not get to grips with Livingston after spending the opening 45 minutes on the ropes.
He said: “Big credit to Livingston, I had been watching Livingston a lot and I’ve not really seen them play this formation.
“It was very difficult for us to get into the rhythm of the game and when we got the ball our quality was not good enough.
“But we need some magic and heroics and Andrew Fisher in the first half kept us in the game. At half-time we calmed down everyone and changed it a bit.
“Second half it was easier and we needed a hero and some magic and Graham Carey gave us that.
“We showed maybe the other side of us, it was not easy to play and credit to our opponent but we showed this togetherness and determination to get through this difficult spell.”
Lions boss David Martindale was left lamenting his team’s failure to take their chances in the first half and revealed referee Don Robertson held his hands up for not awarding the hosts a penalty.
Midfielder Andrew Shinnie appeared to be struck by defender Daniels Balodis’ flailing arm in the box in the first half.
He said: “I think the referee has seen it back and said it was a penalty. He’s not got the hindsight of VAR. I’m alright with that.
“If he’d seen it he would have given it. The disappointing part for me, and I’m not berating the officials, but we’ve seen that in real time from the bench.
“So the linesman has to see that in real time. I think it’s a stone-waller. It was pretty blatant.
“They’ve missed it, but within the game we had more than enough chances to win the game. It’s poor execution from us.”
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