BY KYLE GUNN
St Mirren boss Jim Goodwin has drawn comparisons between his side’s current Scottish Cup run and the year he skippered the Buddies to League Cup glory back in 2013.
The former midfielder wore the armband for trophy lift seven years ago as the Paisley outfit claimed their first piece of silverware for 26 years against Hearts at Hampden Park.
Tomorrow’s Scottish Cup quarter-final against Aberdeen is a repeat of the last eight tie in the League Cup of that successful campaign, and Goodwin believes that his players can upset the odds once again.
He said: ”They’ve always gone far in cup competitions whether it’s the Scottish Cup of the League Cup, but I believe we are good enough to beat Aberdeen. I don’t think we have anything to fear.
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"That’s not disrespectful me saying that. I like Aberdeen and they are a good side, but I genuinely think if we get things right on the day, and we have done in previous games against them, we can win.
“We’ve already beaten them in the league and were unlucky not to come away with something from Pittodrie when we lost 2-1. We don’t have anything to fear.
"You talk about the 2013 win. The last time we played Aberdeen in the quarters of a cup was that particular year so hopefully this is a good omen of what’s to come.”
Elsewhere, the 38-year-old praised his dressing room for having the character to fight back from one down at half-time away to Motherwell on Tuesday night.
Ilkay Durmus’ late strike at Fir Park fired Saints to a priceless victory as they opened up a six-point gap between themselves and Hearts at the bottom of the Premiership table, and a four-point lead over second from second from bottom Hamilton.
While Goodwin reiterates that the league is and will continue to be the main priority, he hopes to use the current momentum to set up a return to the national stadium for a semi-final.
The gaffer continued: “The players got their rewards at Fir Park after a poor first-half when we were lucky to be only one down.
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"Sometimes managers get credit for tactical changes or substitutions in these situations but this was all down to the players – they knew that their application in the opening 45 minutes wasn’t what it ought to have been and they sorted that out. We didn’t win through brilliant football, but by working harder and doing the basics better.
“Of course, cup competitions are fantastic for everyone and fans can have that dream of what might be. You see it all over the world in every cup competition, on any particular day, any club is capable of beating another.
"It takes the big team to have a slightly off day and for the other to have a great day. That’s what I think we are capable of on Saturday. We have to have that mindset. There’s no point in having any other. If we were to get through it and get the trip to Hampden, we’d probably bring in excess of 20,000 fans like we did seven years ago.
“The carrot is there for the boys. A lot of them won’t have been this far in a major cup competition in their careers, but they are starting to understand what this really means.
"It’s really exciting but we can’t get too far ahead of ourselves. We’re in a good place. We’ve lost three games in 14 in all competitions and two of those defeats came against Celtic and Rangers.”
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