His manager plans on parking the bus against Rangers this week. For Jon Obika, though, a two-goal haul against Broxburn in the Scottish Cup is the best possible preparation for what is sure to be an entirely different type of game in Glasgow.
St Mirren dominated possession against stout non-league opposition on Saturday. And Goodwin suggested his side will try and frustrate Rangers in their midweek clash. “We’ll take the Broxburn approach, we might park two buses,” he said.
But striker Obika is ready for his first visit to Ibrox and insists confidence is high in Paisley after their 3-0 victory.
“I was happy with the goals but I felt like we had a lot of chances and could’ve scored a few more myself,” Obika said. “But the job is done and we look forward to Wednesday against Rangers.
“This will be my first time at Ibrox but the boys have told me a bit about it. We know it’ll be a bit different from this game but we go in confident.”
Broxburn were stubborn in defence and held the Saints for just shy of an hour before Obika struck. The Englishman netted again after Danny Mullen had doubled their advantage. Question marks surrounded his second, though – but he maintains it was his.
“The second goal is definitely mine,” he added. “I was just using my chest because I felt it was a bit low. It was an easy finish and I like those. The first goal I remember it coming in and I couldn’t even really react to it. It just hit my knee and went in.
“The first half we missed a few and we were thinking, ‘Just be patient’. The gaffer told us at half-time if we don’t score past 60 minutes to relax, we’re going to get a goal. So we knew we needed to take our chance quite early. They defended well at times and made it difficult for us.”
Obika, on another day, could have had five against Broxburn had it not been for some dodgy finishing in the first half and a goalkeeping masterclass from Connor Wallace in the second.
The stopper, 27, was in inspired form and reckons the scoreline was harsher on the West Lothian outfit than their performance deserved.
“I didn’t actually have a lot to do in the first half,” said Wallace. “Maybe one cross that the boy should’ve scored from, an open goal, then one that was offside that I saved. I didn’t feel under too much pressure.”
Broxburn goalkeeper Connor Wallace had planned to swap jerseys with St Mirren’s Vaclav Hladky as soon as the Scottish Cup fourth-round draw was made. What he would not have expected was that the Czech stopper would say no.
“I was actually kind of hoping to get St Mirren goalkeeper’s jersey but he’s saying it’s not happening,” Wallace said at full-time. “He just said he doesn’t think I could get his top.
“I was pretty gutted. It wasn’t a straightforward no, he just said he doesn’t think they’ve got enough kit to be throwing away jerseys.”
The shirt worn by Broxburn’s players on the day had a special inscription emblazoned on the front to celebrate the day the non-league club made it to the fourth round of the Scottish Cup. The fact that the printers incorrectly stitched February 18, 2020 seemed to sum up the day that ended in a 3-0 defeat in Paisley despite Wallace’s heroics.
“We knew a good few weeks ago we were getting the jerseys,” he added. “But they’ve printed the wrong date on it which is ridiculous. I’ve never seen that before. They’re selling them to us so we’re getting to buy a jersey with the wrong date on it.”
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