BY KYLE GUNN

St Mirren boss Jim Goodwin knows exactly how to deal with the pressures his squad will be feeling going into tomorrow’s game against Broxburn Athletic.

But, instead of playing the part of the dreamer, as was the norm during the Irishman’s playing career, the 38-year-old is now looking to avoid a shock Scottish Cup defeat. 

And he admitted that swapping roles from underdogs to favourites is not something that bothers him in the slightest.

He said: "I've been an underdog at most of the clubs I've been at most of my career.

"In the lower leagues in England and in my time at St Mirren, when you get drawn against the big boys like Celtic, Rangers or Aberdeen.

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"I've seen both sides to it. I've not had too many shock defeats, I'm glad to say. 

“When you look back on our League Cup run, beating Celtic in a one-off game at Hampden in the semi-final, that's probably the biggest upset we've caused, or certainly that I've caused as a player.

"We came here 12 months ago with Alloa as huge underdogs and probably should have won the game. We got our noses in front and should have got the job done."

Goodwin also confirmed that Rangers winger Glenn Middleton won’t be joining the Buddies on loan during this window. 

The Irishman revealed that he enquired about taking the Scotland under-21 international on a loan deal in the summer before he joined Hibs.

But the Saints gaffer does hope to announce his fourth new arrival of the January transfer window next week, although it may not be completed in time for the trip to Ibrox on Wednesday night.

“I saw something getting brought up about that again yesterday. We enquired about Glenn in the summer, we spoke to Rangers and we told them that we’d love to have him, I thought it would have been a great move for him in terms of continuing his development and playing regularly.

"But it’s not something that we’re interested in now because we’re okay in that area of the pitch. So if he had been available in the summer and we could have got something down, absolutely we would have taken him, but right now in this window that won’t be happening.

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“I’d love to try to get another one in next week, whether that will be in time for Wednesday probably not, but I’d like to try to get one in in the next couple of weeks before the window shuts.

"The three that we have got in is great and I needed those players, I am not desperare for another one but we are talking to a couple of players at the moment trying to convince them and if that does happen then that will only make us better, make the squad healthier again.

"The squad I have got right now, this week is the first week in about two months where I’ve had 20 players on the training pitch which is brilliant because you can put on a far better training session when you have got those kind of numbers as opposed to the 12 that we’ve had to train with for the last maybe six weeks before Christmas - more bodies the better to be honest with you.”

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