HISTORY is made not repeated. Stevie Mallan has heard plenty tales involving other people playing in cup finals and now wants to experience it for himself. A Petrofac Training Cup semi-final away to Rangers this afternoon provides the St Mirren forward with an immediate, if somewhat testing, avenue to do just that.
Mallan grew up hearing about how his dad – also Stevie – reached the final of this competition back in 1997. Mallan Jr was only a baby at the time so has no recollection of Falkirk’s narrow 1-0 win over his dad’s Queen of the South side, but a piece of memorabilia in the Mallan household become an often-viewed memento during his childhood.
“I was only about 18 months old at the time of that final so I can’t remember whether or not I was even taken to the game,” he admitted. “Unfortunately Queens lost 1-0 but we still have a plaque in the house with the results of the previous rounds and the goals my dad scored in them on it. It would be great to match what he did by winning on Saturday – although I’d then want to go one better and win the cup.”
Other cup memories were forged more recently. Mallan was a part of the St Mirren under-17 squad when Danny Lennon etched his name into Paisley folklore by beating Celtic and then Hearts en route to guiding the first team to the 2013 League Cup. Although not old enough to legally join the throng who filled every pub in the town he still remembers the celebrations fondly.
“I wasn’t at Hampden for the League Cup final win but I remember my dad and me going mad while watching it on the telly,” he recalled. “Later on I did go and join in with the celebrations. However, I was at the semi-final when we beat Celtic and that was amazing. To beat them on your way to a final was fantastic. Partly that was because we were such underdogs that day, just as we are this weekend.”
Now Mallan, the sole shining light in a St Mirren team struggling for form, hopes to emulate those achievements of 2013 by knocking out the other half of the Old Firm.
“Maybe you can make a comparison between playing Celtic two years ago and taking on Rangers now. They’re the favourites and everyone expects them to go on and win it but we’ll be looking to upset them. If we can keep them quiet until half-time then their fans might start to turn on them, a bit. If we can get the first goal and hold on to that lead until the interval then that would put them under a bit of pressure.
“They would have to come at us and that might give us a bit of leeway to get the ball down and maybe hit them on the break. We’ve played well in both of our games against them so far this season - even though we lost twice they were close-run things. They brought the best out of us.”
Mallan, still only 19, is making a habit of scoring spectacular goals, his latest a last-minute free kick that earned St Mirren a draw away to Raith Rovers on Tuesday night.
“It was good to get the goal so late on, especially since we were on the receiving end of one against Morton in the previous game. We were disappointed that night but that’s two games unbeaten and we can take that into Saturday’s tie. The cup gives us a little respite from the league and, if we can get a win, that will give us a lift for the games coming after it.”
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