STEVIE MALLAN can’t wait to play in his first cup final for St Mirren – but insisted this weekend’s league match away to Ayr United is the biggest game of their season. Mallan was on the scoresheet on Sunday as the Paisley side swept aside Welsh side The New Saints 4-1 to reach the Irn-Bru Cup final against Dundee United next month.

St Mirren’s cup form has stood in stark contrast to their league efforts where they find themselves eight points behind Ayr at the bottom of the Championship with just 13 games of the season left. The two sides meet at Somerset Park on Saturday in what is shaping up to be a pivotal match.

The midfielder said: “This will be my first cup final since I came in to the first team so it will be something I’ll really look forward to. A lot of the boys in the squad are quite young so it will be a first final for a few of them as well. But we have to leave that to one side for now and concentrate on Ayr as that will be the biggest game of our season so far.

“First of all we have make sure we don’t go into League One. That’s our immediate priority. But we have to aim high. Now that’s hard to do but we want to do everything we can to get out of the rut we are in just now. We have to try claw back the points to Ayr and Dumbarton. The next few games are very important and hopefully winning in the past few weeks in the two cups will give us a confidence booster. Our cup form has actually been great, we just need to take that into the league.

“All the boys had said going into the two cup ties this month that we needed to get two wins to try to get us on a bit of a roll going into the league game with Ayr. And we’ve done that by scoring four goals at home which is something we’ve not done for a long time. So that’s a real confidence booster for the boys and we’re now looking forward to next week.”

Mallan came close to completing a January move to Barnsley but admitted it would have been a wrench to have left a club he has been with since he was four years old.

He added: “If the move had happened I would have been delighted. But I was happy also that I ended up staying with St Mirren. It would have been hard to leave a club I’ve been at since I was four years old. Until that day comes I’m going to keep working hard to try get St Mirren back in the Premiership.

“The club means everything to me. I’m a local boy and have been living in Paisley for the past 12 or 13 years or so. I came through the youth system so have to thank all the coaches that have helped me through. That was a dream come through, something you think about it in the under-sevens and all the way through. It’s not been easy and a few times I was nearly let go. But the old head of youth David Longwell stuck with me and eventually it paid off. Now I want to give something back to the club for everything they have invested in me.”

Mallan credited team-mate Jamie Langfield for his role in the free kick that put his side 2-1 up against TNS on Sunday. He explained: “As goalkeeping coach he helps me out a bit and told me to hit it to the goalkeeper’s side as he thought he would take a step the other way and I listened to him and luckily it went in.

“I was due one as it had been a while since I last scored, away to Hibs. But I had been working on them last week as the gaffer wants me to score more often and add that to my game.”