The Scottish Mail on Sunday

BUDDIES HAVE THEIR WORK CUT OUT AGAINST THE WELSH BHOYS

- By Ewing Grahame

ST MIRREN will need to overcome the Celtic of Welsh football in order to claim a place in the Irn-Bru Cup final this afternoon.

Jack Ross’s side, 11 points adrift of safety in the Championsh­ip, will host The New Saints, whose confidence levels are off the radar.

Like Celtic, they are heading for their sixth successive title and setting a new world record of 27 wins-in-a-row in December has left them 21 points clear of the pack in the Welsh Premier League.

What is more, they prepared for today’s tie by training — where else? — at Lennoxtown yesterday.

‘It was good of Celtic to let us use their training ground,’ said goalkeeper Paul Harrison. ‘We were all looking forward to it.

‘I’m not sure how it came about but our manager does know Brendan Rodgers. We played Liverpool a few times in training games when he was there, so maybe that’s the connection.’

Harrison, a Scouser who began his senior career at Anfield, and who lost his father and an uncle in the Hillsborou­gh tragedy, believes that his team face similar problems to Rodgers’ Hoops.

‘We have the same challenge as Celtic face in Scotland because we are the team everyone wants to beat,’ said the 32-year-old.

‘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 to keep you out.

‘We lost a game last week for the first time and the other team (Carmarthen) were celebratin­g like they’d won the league!’

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