BEN RAMAGE

Jim Goodwin knows exactly how big a threat Kyle Lafferty poses to St Mirren’s chances of reaching the Scottish Cup semi-finals.

That’s why he tried to snare the Northern Ir Ireland international when he took over as B Buddies boss.

The former Rangers and Hearts hitman has b been in fine form since signing for Kilmarnock in February, with his hat-trick against Dundee U United on Wednesday night helping to pull T Tommy Wright’s side further away from the r relegation spots.

And Goodwin knows his team will have to k keep the talented frontman quiet if they’re to fire themselves past the Ayrshire side in th their quarter-final clash on Monday night, having tried to persuade the 33-year-old to move to Paisley before he eventually opted to move to Norwegian side Sarpsborg in August, 2019.

Goodwin said: “We registered an interest with his agent. We said we’d like to bring him in.

“He’s a top number nine, but the contract that was on offer abroad was much better than the one we could afford to give him. It didn’t happen for us.

“He’s a player I’ve admired for a long time. He did really well at Rangers and at Hearts as well.

“He’s been very successful for Northern Ireland in big games too so I think it was a really shrewd bit of business by Kilmarnock.

“Whatever terms he’s on, whatever they’re paying him it’ll all be worth it if he keeps them in the Premiership.

“I’m sure that’s their main objective, although I’m sure they want him to take them further in the cup competition as well. He’s a big player who’s got plenty of years left in him too.

“You tend to find top players do well on the big occasions.

Kilmarnock have a number of players in their squad who have had fantastic careers. You look at Kirk

Broadfoot and Chris Burke who have also played at a top level.

“They’ve got rea l l y important players, but Lafferty is obviously the main man at the moment grabbing all the headlines.

“He got that hat- trick on

Wednesday night, to do that in the Premiership is not easy and he took his goals very well.”

While the Buddies don’t have the best track record in Ayrshire in recent seasons, Goodwin is still feeling confident ahead of their trip to Rugby Park on Monday evening.

He hopes his players can show the same character they did against Ross County, coming back from a goal down to leave the Highlands with all three points on Wednesday night.

Goodwin added: “We went to Dingwall with 16 available players, realistically we weren’t expecting a great deal from Collin Quaner.

“The reason I was so satisfied with the Ross County win was the character we showed.

“To go a goal behind, under difficult circumstances, and to have the strength to go on and win the game so convincingly was pleasing.”

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