St Mirren’s Jake Doyle-Hayes wants to follow in the footsteps of former Saints hero John McGinn, and make a big impression at the Paisley club.
Hayes scored his first goal for Jim Goodwin’s side in the recent 1-0 win over Livingston, a win that moved St Mirren four points clear of bottom of the table Hamilton.
Now Hayes, who was at McGinn’s current side Aston Villa until last year, has revealed that McGinn is a big inspiration to him.
“A big inspiration”
“I seen obviously his pathway, what he’s done here and where’s he went, so he’s a big inspiration to a lot of players that play at his level, obviously he’s doing unbelievable for himself, someone to look up to” Hayes said.
Jake Doyle-Hayes celebrates his goal against Livingston (Photo by Paul Devlin/SNS Group via Getty Images)
If Hayes can do as well as McGinn did at St Mirren then they will have an exceptional talent on their books. McGinn’s career has gone from strength to strength in the last few seasons.
McGinn won a move to Hibernian after a few successful seasons at St Mirren, and is now a regular for both Aston Villa and Scotland.
Grit and determination
Few would have predicted that when McGinn broke into the St Mirren team.
Aston Villa star John McGinn (Photo by Matthew Ashton – AMA/Getty Images)
However, through grit and determination McGinn has managed to make a great career for himself.
Hayes seems determined to follow in McGinn’s footsteps. At only 21-years-old, time is still on his side. Now it is up to Hayes to impress whilst in action for St Mirren.
Should he be able to do that then a move to a bigger club could be in the player’s future.