St Mirren ‘up against Welsh equivalent of Celtic’

IF St Mirren think they are to have an easy ride of it in today’s Irn-Bru Cup semi-final simply because their opponents come from the Welsh Premier League, they may be in for a rude awakening. No team beat Ajax’s world record of 27 consecutive wins, at any level, without being at least a bit handy.

The New Saints travel north full of confidence, and goalkeeper Paul Harrison has warned Jack Ross’s side that they are about to come up against the Welsh equivalent of Celtic. And they will actually be training at Lennoxtown during their time in Glasgow.

Harrison, who was on the books of Liverpool, his home team, as a youngster, is hoping their winning habit can help them gatecrash a senior Scottish cup final.

“We have the same challenge as Celtic face in Scotland because we are the team everyone wants to beat,” Harrison said. “They are all trying to knock us off our perch. It’s not easy to have that status as teams make it hard for you and set up their formation to keep you out.

“We lost a game last week and the team were celebrating like they’d won the league.

“Every game is tough. It’s a different type of challenge. It annoys us when people say it’s easy for us because it’s not. It takes a lot of hard work and concentration to be so consistent.”

The tournament sponsor is synonymous with refreshment in Scotland, and the chance to play in the cross-border competition has had a similarly invigorating effect on the last of the “foreign” teams still standing.

“For us, the tournament has been really refreshing,” Harrison said. “At home, we can play a team six times in a season. So, it’s been good to come up a few times, play good competitive games and experience something different.

“It feels like we are playing in Europe because we are going to new grounds and playing new teams. The away games have been brilliant.

“It’s hard to tell how the standard compares to our game because they are one-off matches but there is probably a bit more quality in Scotland. The teams seem a bit more organised.”

One of the main challenges facing both sides, though, is the novelty. “The gaffer will have had them watched but we don’t know what to expect yet,” Harrison admitted. “But it’s the same for St Mirren.”