McAllister in the right mood to do the double over Celtic
ST MIRREN had not beaten Celtic in the league for 11 years until recently. So what chance them repeating the feat within 11 days?
History tells us teams rarely land two knockout blows in short succession on either of the Old Firm pair. In fact, you have to go back to 1989/90 to find the last time St Mirren took two wins from Celtic in the same season.
The odds will, therefore, be stacked against Saints when they welcome Neil Lennon and his players to the SMISA Stadium on Wednesday night but, based on the respective form of both teams, another upset should not be ruled out entirely either.
A 2-0 victory over Kilmarnock on Saturday – thanks to goals from Kyle McAllister and Jon Obika – consolidated St Mirren’s place in the top six and all but banished the prospect of them being drawn into a relegation scrap this season.
The win was their third in four matches and McAllister believes they ought to have no fears when Celtic come to town.
“As a team we are all happy and it’s probably the best it’s been in a long time,” said the forward who celebrated a rare headed goal. “We are clicking along and hopefully we can keep getting wins. We have got Celtic again on Wednesday and obviously did a great job at Parkhead recently. Why can’t we do that again at home? Hopefully we can get three more points.
“If we play like we did at
Parkhead can we get a result? Yeah, we switched up the formation for that game and matched them up. A lot of people don’t do that. They usually go to Parkhead and sit in.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen on Wednesday, but I’m sure we will go and match up against them again and hopefully it works out the same way.”
St Mirren chief executive Tony Fitzpatrick was mocked in the summer for suggesting the team were good enough to finish in the top half of the table but could yet have the last laugh.
“I’m sure a lot of people say they want to be top six but from the start of the season the manager has been on top of us about it,” added McAllister. “We had a meeting and it was about finishing top six. That’s where we were aiming. The club has never done it before [in the Premiership].
“We want to be the players wearing the shirt who finished top six first at this club.”
Goodwin has made personnel changes in every match, especially in the forward areas where players like McAllister have rotated in and out. But with the team winning, the academy graduate says he can have no complaints.
“We have a strong squad and change the team week-in, weekout. But everyone is doing their job. We have eight games in February and you can’t play in every one. We’ve got a lot of attacking players and I’m happy to be switched in and out when there are a lot of games because you don’t want injuries to happen. It doesn’t bother me one bit – as long as we are winning.”
That is not something Kilmarnock have experienced of late. Saturday’s loss was their fifth on the spin, giving their new manager – expected to be announced soon – plenty to think about.
It made for a tough debut for Arsenal loanee Zech Medley.
“Results haven’t been great for the club recently, but it was great just to get out there with the boys because I only arrived on Monday,” the 20-year-old said.
“Having got a few days training under my belt it was good to get out on the pitch again, even though St Mirren made it hard for us at times and we didn’t create too much.
“It was tough to go straight into the side, but you have to deal with it. I’m also at the stage in my career where I have to take all these things on board and make myself better going forward.”