Jak: Rival’s Hart went out to me at break

JAK ALNWICK revealed he got a half-time pep talk from glove rival Joe Hart to help him get through his Parkhead nightmare.

The Saints shot-stopper admitted he was blown away by the Celtic No.1 giving him words of encouragement after shipping four goals in a calamitous first half during Saturday’s six-goal stuffing.

Alnwick said: “I’ve got to pay a lot of respect to Joe Hart. At half-time he walked over to me and said, ‘Regroup and make saves.’ That was class from him.

“This is someone who has played at the highest level but someone who has been in the position I was in himself.

“There’s me, as an ex-Rangers player as well – and maybe Celtic fans won’t be happy to hear it – but he knows what it’s like to be in that situation.

“He’s had some massive ups and downs throughout his own career.

“I know him a bit through my brother Ben, who is the same age as him and was involved in England teams.

“But I respect Joe so much because of what he did at that moment. “He didn’t have to do it.” Alnwick reckons Hart’s encouragement did the trick as his second-half saves stopped Celts hitting double figures.

He said: “I was on the end of a tough first half and I knew myself I would have a difficult 45 minutes after we came back out.

“But I ended up making a couple of the best saves I’ve made since coming to St Mirren. There was one I made with my foot when I was going the wrong way.

“I knew at half-time we were never going to win the game but I didn’t want it to get too embarrassing.”

Alnwick admitted it was a brutal day at the office with Alan Power’s early red card and Curtis Main’s wrongly disallowed goal adding to the problems.

He said: “Going from the gaffer (Jim Goodwin) getting Covid to the bad start and then the red card, it felt like everything that could go wrong did go wrong.

“Main’s goal was onside. But every little decision went against us.”