The St Mirren players see pictures of their manager lifting the League Cup every time they enter the building – and Jim Goodwin says that must be his side’s motivation.
St Mirren host Aberdeen on Saturday in a League Cup last 16 tie. The Buddies progressed to this stage after battling out of a group with only full-time teams involved, now standing two games before Hampden.
Goodwin lifted this trophy as a player at St Mirren in 2013, one of the club’s finest achievements in modern times. With that squad still revered around Paisley, Goodwin believes his players can use that as inspiration.
“It has to be the motivation,” said Goodwin. “This particular competition over the last 10 years if you look at the winners does give clubs an opportunity.
“Believe it or not I don’t like to talk about my own time in 2013! But if the players see those pictures on the wall… it’s not something I bring to the fore.
“But I do make them understand that this is a competition that if we apply ourselves properly in and get a little bit of luck along the way, you can go far.
“Apart from getting Celtic or Rangers, this is the next toughest game we could have got. Aberdeen are the third biggest club in the country and probably have the third biggest budget. But it’s a one-off game.”
One player who may miss the clash is Coventry City loanee Brandon Mason. The left-back has been a good fit for Goodwin since his arrival from the English Championship.
Livingston midfielder Jason Holt has been given a two-game suspension for a tackle on Mason and Goodwin says he’s still feeling the impact of it: “First and foremost, Brandon’s ankle took a real heavy challenge.
“We got him scanned and the results of the scan weren’t terrible but they weren’t particularly great either. This weekend may come too soon, hopefully we will have him available for the next league game against Aberdeen.
“With regards being happy with retrospective punishment, it is not something we called for. The incident has been highlighted on numerous media platforms and obviously the SFA chose to look at it.
“I don’t think Jason Holt went in with any real malice or meaning to hurt Brandon but it was a heavy challenge.
“Maybe 10 or 15 years ago it would have been one I would have been proud of myself, but unfortunately in the modern day game you just don’t get away with that and he has suffered the consequences.”