St Johnstone boss Tommy Wright will never forget snide ‘Barman’ remarks

Taunts from the past will fire up Tommy Wright on Saturday.

The Northern Irishman is bidding to become the first-ever manager to lead St Johnstone to Scottish Cup glory.

An advocate of positive thinking, he will send Saints out with orders to seize their opportunity to become history makers.

However, as he admitted, should they succeed, Wright will allow himself a small smile of satisfaction at proving those who dismissed him as an irrelevance at the start of his football career.

“When I first went to Newcastle United as a player, I was 25 and was written off as the Belfast Barman,” he recalls.

“There would be snide comments from the wives of the some of the other guys, suggesting I would be best employed serving the drinks.

“I wasn’t seen as what I was a goalkeeper trying to make his way in the game.

“It is true I had worked behind the bar back in Northern Ireland, but I had been a part-timer with Linfield.

“I wasn’t one of these guys who was an internationalist as a schoolboy then got money thrown at him.

“And I wasn’t even from Belfast, it was Ballyclare!”

They say what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, and the disrespect was to prove a defining experience for Wright.

“It set the tone for me,” admits the Saints boss.

“From then on, I have always felt I have had to work really hard in order to prove to people I am good enough to do the job.

“Even now, all these years later, that is still the way I feel.

“Somebody just said to me: ‘There, you are one of the first goalkeepers to take a team to the Scottish Cup Final.’

“It shouldn’t matter what position I played in! I know plenty of attacking players strikers who have been poor managers.

“The game has changed. There are managers at the top level now who have never kicked a ball.

“But Dino Zoff was a keeper, and he led Italy to a World Cup win. It is too easy to put people in boxes. You have to work against that.”

For the battle against pre-conceptions, the 50-year-old is at least blessed with strong allies.

“It is important in management to surround yourself with good people, knowledgeable people,” he says.

“I have that with Callum Davidson and Alex Cleland. When we talk about the team, it is the three of us. I trust them with my life.”

And, as this season’s experience showed, certainly with his football club.

“I took ill right out of the blue and had to get rushed into hospital to have my gall bladder removed,” Wright recalls.

“Normally it is an easy procedure that can be done with key-hole surgery. But mine was in such a state, I had to have open surgery, which is a good bit more complicated in terms of recovery.

“The consultant actually told me, if we had left it a day, it could have ruptured and then I would have been in serious trouble.

“As it was, I had to stay in hospital for a wee while and that meant handing over to Callum and Alex for the games against Hibs and St Mirren.

“I still had my wits about me, and I couldn’t divorce myself completely from the football.

“I was on the phone to them before and after training, and they would come up and see me.

“But in that particular situation, they took the training and made the decisions at the matches.

“I had no concern they wouldn’t do a good job and it proved to be the case because they won two out of two.

“From a personal perspective, it was a bit of a shock at the time but I got looked after really well.

“It is easy for people to criticise the NHS, but for every criticism there are hundreds of us who have had positive experiences.

“I am getting back to full strength now, and the good thing is I lost about a stone in weight albeit it was a bit of a drastic way to do it!”

Even if Saints lose on Saturday, Wright knows he is in similarly safe hands in his post.

“One of the great things about this club is that they don’t deal in knee-jerk reactions,” he says.

“They make you feel secure because they give you a covenant to go on and do the job properly.

“Under Derek McInnes, they only scored 23 goals in one season but I know for a fact his job was never under threat.

“Steve Lomas and I had a run over two different seasons where we hadn’t won in 13 games. But Steve was never really put under pressure by the club at any time.

“I have had runs where I have lost four games in a row, other times where I have only picked up two points in five games.

“Obviously that is not a great situation, but as long as the chairman here sees you are working hard and trying to do things the right way and can see improvement then you are OK.

“It is good to have that confidence. It helps you move forward.”