Goodwin challenges his players to show they’re not ‘chokers’ as they return to the big stage
St Mirren manager Jim Goodwin has urged his players to prove they are not “chokers” in a season which has already seen them fall short in their pursuit of two major targets.
Ahead of tomorrow afternoon’s Scottish Cup semi-final against St Johnstone at Hampden, Goodwin wants his team to put their previous disappointments behind them and show they have the mentality to go all the way and lift the trophy.
St Mirren missed out on a place in the League Cup final when a tame display saw them lose to Livingston in the semifinals in January, then saw their hopes of a top-six Premiership finish shattered by the concession of a late equaliser at Hamilton Accies in March.
“We’ve spoken about it already this week,” said Goodwin. “We want to be recognised as winners. We want to be recognised as a successful team and a successful club. Not a team that gets to big occasions and chokes.
“We want to be able to go to Hampden on Sunday and have a little bit of swagger about us, a little bit of confidence and belief that we belong in this situation, and just give a far better reflection of the all-round team than what we did against Livingston in the League Cup semi-final.
“I think the more often you get to these types of games, the better the group handles the situation. I don’t think we handled the occasion well enough last time round.
“This time, the guys have got that experience to draw on and hopefully that will show on Sunday. We’re not just satisfied to get to this stage. We need to aspire to go further. We want to get to a final and give ourselves an opportunity to win a trophy. I don’t want to be a ‘nearly’ team.
“Going far in cup competitions is something we should always aspire to anyway. Getting to the semi-final of the League Cup was great but now we want to go one step further in the big one, which is the Scottish Cup. If we can do that, it would be a great achievement and give our fans something to cheer.”
Goodwin has five players only recently back in training following injury – Marcus Fraser, Ryan Flynn, Jonathan Obika, Eamonn Brophy and Dylan Connolly but the manager admitted: “Some have been out for four months so I need I make sensible choices.”