Shiels and Rodgers inspire Kearney to reach for stars

New St Mirren manager Oran Kearney admits he is a dreamer – but he’s not the only one. The 40-year-old made headlines over the weekend when, in a television interview in his native Northern Ireland, he spoke about winning the Premiership title with the Paisley club.

Considering it is now 34 seasons since anyone outwith Celtic or Rangers became Scotland’s champions that may seem like a pipedream, but Kearney insists he is not a fantasist.

In any case, he takes encouragement from the success enjoyed by his father-in-law, Kenny Shiels, whose Kilmarnock team shocked Neil Lennon’s Celtic by winning the League Cup final at Hampden in 2012. Unfortunately, his wife, Lauren, missed her dad’s big day in Glasgow because Kearney’s Coleraine lost to Crusaders in the Irish final in Belfast on the same afternoon.

But Kearney paid tribute to the positive influence Shiels, who took Derry City into Europe again this season, has exerted.

“He’s been brilliant throughout my whole career,” he said. “He’s an unbelievable football man and he’s as honest as the day is long – perhaps too honest and that’s maybe the bit the press enjoyed the most.

“But he’s been brilliant for me over the years and, over the last two weeks in particular, he’s been super.”

Kearney had been on the short list to replace Jack Ross when he left to join Sunderland during the summer but lost out to former Hibernian manager Alan Stubbs, who lasted only 77 days. Now he has resigned from his position as PE teacher at Cross and Passion College in Ballycastle.

He has been teaching for 16 years but is entering full-time football for the first time. He starts by hosting champions Celtic live on TV on Friday and says that countryman

0 Oran Kearney left his post as a PE teacher to take up his first full-time role in football as St Mirren’s new manager. Brendan Rodgers’ success has inspired him to go for it himself.

“I’ve known him through coaching aspects for a long time but I’m one of those people that don’t bother people if I don’t need to,” he said.

“Soididn’taskforhisnumber in the past so I could wish him the best before big games, but I did get it before I was interviewed for the job here the first time around because then I had a decent reason to speak to him.

“I had a good 40 minutes on the phone with him and he was fantastic. I could not have asked for any more. And, when I was flying over on Saturday morning, I got a lovely text message from him saying: ‘Welcome to the league and see you on Friday night’.”

Kearney admits that Rodgers’ success at Swansea, Liverpool and now Celtic has shown his countrymen what can be done.

“Yes – and we’re back to reaching for the stars and all that,” he said. “If you don’t have

ORAN KEARNEY benchmarks or parameters then you have no reason to go and do something. Brendan has been fantastic at Celtic and at Liverpool before that. He’s a fantastic manager and one we all aspire to emulating.

“I’ve had a couple of nice messages from a few Irish lads already. I know [Motherwell’s] Stephen Robinson quite well and I know Tommy Wright [at St Johnstone] very well also. It will be great, once everything settles down, to hopefully meet them for a coffee at some stage.”

As for those remarks about winning the title, Kearney claims they were taken out of context.

“I’m not a Jose Mourinho by any stretch of the imagination,” he said. “It wasn’t an offthe-cuff comment. If you play back that video on BBC Sport Northern Ireland the question was: ‘What would you like to achieve at St Mirren?’

“When I walked in at Coleraine I was asked the same question and my answer was that I’d like to win silverware, either the league or the cup; it took me eight years to do it there but we did it.

“I also feel that, if you don’t set your aspirations high, if you don’t have targets and reach for the stars, then you’ll never get anywhere. If the question had been: ‘Do you think St Mirren can win the league this year?’ then my answer would have been different.”

Kearney may have been appointed after the transfer window closed but he could strengthen his rearguard by signing former 33-year-old West Ham United, Sunderland, Queen’s Park Rangers and Southend United defender Anton Ferdinand.

“Anton is in for a couple of days to have a look at us,” he said. “When you look at our record there’s been a few goals conceded. We’ve moved up a division and lost a few of the experienced centre-halves from last year. We’re probably needing someone with a bit of experience there to come in and be a calming influence.

“He was staying in the same hotel as me last night so we met up for an hour and had a really good chat, which was brilliant.

“It’s good to see there is real hunger there to want to do well. He trained today and he’ll train again tomorrow then we’ll see what can come from that.”

0 Michael Devlin: Red card.

“Ihadagood40 minutes on the phone with him [Rodgers] and he was fantastic. When I was flying over on Saturday morning, I got a lovely text message from him saying: ‘Welcome to the league and see you on Friday’ ”

ing retrospective punishment despite kicking out at Celtic’s Kristoffer Ajer.

Gordon Duncan, spokesperson for Dons Supporters Together said: “Gary Dicker’s and Michael Devlin’s punishments were for different offences but the hearing is the same, without the player, referee or club officials present.

“At the very least, there should be clarity as to why claims are dismissed, including incidents cited by the Compliance Officer.

“We are now in a ludicrous situation in which clubs are missing key players to suspension through decisions made based on an interpretation of the rules as two players contest for the ball, when other players go unpunished or have punishments downgraded for striking opponents off the ball because they are not doing so with sufficient force.”

Meanwhile, young Dons midfielder Dean Campbell yesterday signed a new deal through to 2021.