BEN RAMAGE
Every football club passes on a player that ends up going on to become a star of the game.
In St Mirren‘s case, they missed out on one of the English Premier League’s most exciting talents of the last ten years in Riyad Mahrez.
Having completed the ultimate underdog story by winning the league with Leicester City, the flying Algerian winger switched to giants Man City.
The tricky 30-year-old has twice lifted the title at the Etihad and etched his name further into the club’s history this week, bagging two crucial
St Mirren keeper Jak Alnwick revealed he left Rangers so he could be judged every single weekend.
And he’s determined to come up with another impressive performance this Sunday when he hopes to take the Buddies past St Johnstone and through to the final of the Scottish Cup.
The Paisley Saints No1 has already tasted semifinal heartache this season, as Scott Robinson’s early winner saw St Mirren’s League Cup hopes finally vanquished by Livingston at Hampden in January.
Just five months later, his club have the chance to right that wrong and give themselves a shot at a first Scottish Cup victory since 1987. goals against PSG to send City into the final of the Champions League.
It’s difficult to imagine the winger as a young teenager at Ralston, trying to impress the club and convince them to sign him. Back in 2009, that’s exactly what happened with the Buddies eventually missing out on the superstar.
Speaking to Unscriptd.com, Mahrez explained:“I played four games and scored seven goals.
“They were saying, game after game:‘We don’t know, we have to see, we have to wait’.
And Alnwick is relishing the chance to shine under the spotlight at the national stadium this weekend.
He told Express Sport : “My next step from Rangers had to be somewhere I got to play.
“The gaffer made it quite clear that he wanted top six and at the start of the season he put up on a board, top six and a good cup run,
“Not only have we had one good cup run, we’ve had two.
“When I left Rangers, you could say it was to prove a point. But I wanted to kick on with my career, so the talking could be about how I’m playing, not for playing just once in a while and judging me on one performance every so often.
“I’m now judged week in, week out and hopefully I’ll be judged well on a big game at the weekend.
“The agent who sent me to Scotland said to me:‘Riyad, just come back because we don’t know what they are doing there, they keep stopping you from signing there’.
“So I was quite happy to come back because Scotland was very difficult and very cold. I was young. I’d never been away from my family for that long.
“In these two months in Scotland I really improved, physically. It helped me to become the player I am now. Now it has become my strength.”
“Looking at the four teams left in it, we are probably the underdogs but it’s a big chance for everyone.
“Everyone has beaten everyone else who are still left in it, so it’s a good chance for players to get their hands on a trophy and it’s massive for the club.
“You look at the money the team who wins the final will get. It’s a massive incentive.”
St Mirren have struggled for consistency since missing out on the top six, beating Ross County in the league 3- 1 while also suffering disappointing losses to Motherwell and Hamilton.
In the Scottish Cup, they’ve edged past Inverness Caley
Thistle and Kilmarnock, and Alnwick insists form does go out the window heading into Sunday’s crunch clash with League Cup winners St Johnstone.
He said: “I’ve no doubt we’ll be up for it. We owe it to our fans after that poor performance ( against Hamilton).
“We would have liked to g go to Hampden on the back o of a good performance. B But in cup games it doesn’t m matter how you are playing, i it doesn’t matter if you’ve lost e every single league game.
“Look at Kilmarnock w when we played them. They w were right down there, put i in a few good performances a and turned up massively a against us.
“Cup games are cup g games. Look at St Johnstone against Rangers ( in the quarter-finals).
“I’ve got no doubt that the character of the lads will come into play. They’ll give everything to get in that team and everything to get to a final.”
Despite the size of the occasion this weekend, Alnwick says his determination to win on Sunday won’t be any different from the club’s training sessions this week.
That’s because he wants to end up on the winning team every time he steps onto a pitch.
He added: “Sometimes you can hear me on the pitch and I might go over the top, shouting at referees and the lads, but it’s because I want to win games of football.
“I don’t care who we’re playing, I want to win every single game.
“It’s the same in training, I’m shouting and screaming if I concede a goal.
“My mentality in football is that we’ve only got one chance at it and it’s a short career.
“It’s a bit longer for me because I’m a goalkeeper, but I want to give it everything I’ve got so I can look back and say I got into finals and semi-finals.”
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