Shaun Rooney’s bubbly personality is ensuring St Johnstone spirits remain high in the fight for Premiership survival.
That was the message from team-mate and fellow defender Jamie McCart ahead of a crunch fixture at McDiarmid Park.
The Perth Saints sit in the relegation play-off spot and welcome nearest rivals St Mirren tomorrow afternoon.
Five points is the gap between the teams after Rooney’s headed equaliser at Dens Park last week shaved the margin ever so slightly.
The towering full-back’s attitude on and off the pitch is having a positive impact in the bid for league safety.
“I’ve known him for years and he’ll never change whatever the situation is,” said McCart, who previously played with Rooney at Inverness.
“If you’d seen him the day after the Scottish Cup final you wouldn’t have noticed a difference between how he was the day after we went bottom of the table at St Mirren.
“That’s just the way he is. That sort of personality can be so important in a dressing room to lift spirits. Maybe don’t ask Callum Booth, mind you. I think Rooney gets on his nerves!”
McCart hopes Rooney can piece together another run of special – and important – goals following his Dundee delight.
“Now he’s back to fitness he gives the team a massive threat from set-pieces, as he showed last Saturday,” McCart said.
“He’s got personality off the pitch and on it. You always hear him whether he’s shouting at players or at the referee.
“He can use his assets in that central role as well as out wide, which he showed against Dundee. He was a miss when he was out with his ankle injury.
“It would be great if we can keep the core of the team fit for the last few games, and he’s definitely part of that. If that happens, we’ve got a good chance.”
Manager Callum Davidson was buoyed by the comeback nature of his side’s point at Dundee last week.
“That wasn’t happening before,” Davidson noted. “Those little things matter. Apart from Rangers and Celtic, we know we’re competing on level terms with everybody we’re playing against now.
“We’ve got belief that we can score goals but I want us to get ahead in games.” positive mindset after that.
“But coming back shows character. They don’t give up.
“It’s all positives compared with where we were in November and December.
“Hopefully we’ll take the lead against St Mirren and keep applying pressure on them.”
Recent home wins against Motherwell and Livingston will bring a degree of confidence.
Perth fans, who have backed the team terrifically well this season, will no doubt turn out in force again.
“Our home form has been very good,” Davidson said.
“The crowd have been brilliant at McDiarmid Park, as they were at Dens.
“It was one of the best supports I can remember there. It was phenomenal.
“They’ve been patient with us when we’ve needed them to be because it can be hard to break teams down sometimes, which was the case against Dundee.
“Hopefully we can give them something to shout about on Saturday.”
