TALKING ST MIRREN Samson: Morgyhas strength to downDons
CRAIG Samson has backed his St Mirren team-mate Lewis Morgan to show why Celtic have signed him in the William Hill Scottish Cup clash with Aberdeen today.
Morgan sealed a £300,000 move to the Parkhead club earlier this month before being immediately loaned back to the Paisley club.
Samson has no doubts the winger will flourish where promising young Scottish players like Scott Allan, Ryan Christie and Gary MackaySteven have struggled in recent seasons.
And he thinks the 21-year-old will underline why Brendan Rodgers was so keen to secure his services in the mouth-watering cup meeting with Derek McInnes’s side later today.
The Dons have finished runners-up in the top flight three seasons running and are currently in second spot in the Ladbrokes Premiership table.
However, the former Dundee, Kilmarnock and Motherwell shot-stopper believes he will turn on the style as usual against McInnes’s men.
“It is a great opportunity for him to show what he can do,” Samson said. “He has done fantastically well for St Mirren and he deserves his move to Celtic and everything he gets.
“When he goes to Celtic he knows he will have to go up another level to try and get in their team. Playing for us against Aberdeen will be different to playing for Celtic against Aberdeen as we are at two different levels. But he will want to show everyone he is a top player.
“I don’t have any doubt he can make it at Celtic. He showed how good he is with the Scotland Under-21s and he has shown it here.
“He was a young boy when I was here before and he has had a couple of knocks and been written off by people at this club before.
“But he keeps coming back for more and this year he has been different class. He knows if he goes to Celtic and stays still then it won’t work for him, but I can’t see that happening.”
SAMSON played in St Mirren’s memorable League Cup win over Aberdeen at Pittodrie back in 2012 in his first spell at the Paisley club – and saved a pen- alty in the shoot-out from his current team-mate Cammy Smith.
The 33-year-old reckons that victory showed that it is important that the senior members of Jack Ross’s side don’t hide in the meeting with McInnes’s team this afternoon.
“I haven’t let Cammy live it down,” he said. “I have good memories from that night and it is certainly something that I would like to replicate on Saturday.
“Cammy has been getting it from me ever since I joined. But Cammy was 16 when he hit that penalty and he showed a lot of courage to go up and hit it because there boys in that team that were a lot more experienced. There was a lot of senior players that didn’t hit penalties that night.
“I think if Cammy scored Ryan Fraser was hitting the next one so it was two young boys that were going to be hitting the penalties for them that night. He showed a lot of guts to actually go up and hit it, but fortunately for me I guessed the right way and managed to save it.
“I think the clubs are at two different points right now. Aberdeen have been fantastic for that last few years, they have a great manager and a brilliant bunch of players who are sitting second in the Premiership, and have been second in the league for a few years now.
“We are obviously hoping to keep our form going in the league and at this moment we are in a nice position in the Championship.
“At that time we were both in the top flight and had maybe played against each other a lot more. This game is an opportunity for us for us to go and test ourselves against one of the top teams in the country and see how far we have come.” who is in his third spell at Hibs and has16 months to run on his contract, would be included in the squad, Lennon simply said: “He might be.”
Meanwhile, Lennon admitted his starting XI would be determined by the state of the boggy Tynecastle surface.
Lennon, who confirmed St Johnstone have enquired about winger Swanson, said: “It’s just difficult on the pitch, it’s so narrow and with the conditions of the last month or so it would be difficult to dribble with the ball.
“I don’t think the current weather is helping. We’ll have to assess the conditions when we get there and look at it, have a think about how we will approach the game.”