The stage is set for Morgan to show Miller he was wrong
ATELEVISED Scottish Cup game in Aberdeen offers Lewis Morgan the opportunity to prove some people wrong.
Like the Celtic supporters who suspect he is not good enough to challenge for a first-team place.
And Alex Miller, the former St Mirren coach who once warned him he would be playing junior football within a year.
‘Lewis was written off by managers who were here before,’ revealed St Mirren goalkeeper Craig Samson.
‘He has been told by different people at this club that he wouldn’t be playing football in a year.
‘He was told he would be playing junior football by a certain manager at this club.’
Samson declined to say who dangled the Sword of Damocles over the winger’s neck.
Gentle probing elsewhere revealed, however, that Miller — who briefly returned to the club as Ian Murray’s assistant in 2015 — was blunt in his assessment of his talents.
A little over two years later and Morgan is now a Celtic player, loaned back to St Mirren until the end of the season. Brendan Rodgers showed enough faith to pay £300,000, when some within the player’s own club thought he had no worth.
‘I won’t say who the manager is,’ added former Motherwell keeper Samson. ‘But it is something Lewis told me. A few people had written him off.
‘It is something that shouldn’t be said to a young kid — but it shows his character.
‘Some young boys would crumble — but Lewis is the type of boy who deals with it.
‘He is a good professional who helps the younger boys out and it is a credit to him that he has done so well.
‘He got released from Rangers as a kid and was written off — but now he finds himself in a position where he can look back at those people and say: “Well, there you go”.’
In the denigration of Morgan’s talents, Miller was hardly a lone voice. On joining Celtic earlier this month, the Greenock-born winger described leaving the Rangers academy as a ‘relief’. The club’s former head of youth had held him back and the last two years, he claimed, were ‘pointless’.
‘It’s a funny old game football,’ pondered Samson. ‘Some people want to bring people down in the game.
‘That is where our manager Jack Ross is different. He has a relationship with everyone and knows how to push your buttons and get the best out of you.
‘He knows who to give a kick up the backside and the ones he has to put his arm around and speak to them. I think he’s got the best out of Lewis by doing that.
‘I don’t have any doubt Lewis can make it at Celtic. He showed how good he is with the Scotland Under-21s and has shown it here.’
The opportunity to show the whole nation what he can do presents itself this lunchtime.
The Edinburgh derby might be the highest-profile game in the fourth round, but Aberdeen hosting St Mirren might be the most intriguing.
Beaten in just one of their last ten games, the Paisley side are eight points clear at the top of the Championship.
Aberdeen have a habit of taking care of lesser Premiership teams. They should win. Yet St Mirren’s form has many suspecting that, if there is to be a fourth-round upset, Pittodrie is the place it could happen.
‘The expectation comes with winning games,’ said Samson.
‘There is an expectation at this football club that we can win any game we are going into at the moment.
‘That is something the boys have been thriving on and we have been going out and putting performances in that have been top notch.
‘It comes with the territory, when you are winning games you are expected to keep winning them whether it is in our league, League One or League Two.
‘If you are winning games it becomes a habit and we don’t want to stop. It will be a difficult game but we have a game plan, and we have ways we feel we can hurt them. But it’s a massive task.’
It’s five years since Samson had his greatest day in football. En route to winning the 2013 League Cup with St Mirren, they won a quarter-final in Aberdeen on penalties after the game finished 2-2. Ironically, Samson saved the decisive spot-kick from Cammy Smith — now a Saints team-mate.
‘I don’t let Cammy Smith live it down because he was the one that missed the Aberdeen penalty that I saved that night, so I have good memories from that night and it’s certainly something we would like to replicate on Saturday,’ he said.
‘I think the clubs are at two different points right now. Aberdeen have been fantastic for the last few years, they have a great manager and a brilliant bunch of players that 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.
‘In 2013, we were both in the top flight and had maybe played against each other a lot more. This game is an opportunity for us to test ourselves against one of the top teams in the country and see how far we have come.’
A St Mirren win would effectively place a bomb under Aberdeen’s season. Eight points behind Celtic in the top tier, the Scottish Cup looks their last bet of silverware.
‘It would be a massive blow to their season if they lose because they will think they can go on and win the Cup. It’s a one-off game and we are a good side,’ said Samson.
‘Aberdeen will be confident after their winter break but that is maybe something we can take advantage of. We’ve been winning games and we are on a bit of a roll.’