CONNOR MCLAREN PREPARES FOR SFA YOUTH CUP TIE AT COVE

Cove Rangers v St. Johnstone, Sunday 2nd November, Allan Park, kick off 2pm.

St. Johnstone’s U20 side travel to Aberdeen this Sunday to take on Cove Rangers in the 3rd round of the SFA Youth Cup.

Despite a slow start to the league season, in their last three games the U20’s picked up their first win of the campaign over Dunfermline, won a hard-fought point away to Hibs and were unlucky to not take something this week at home to Motherwell.

Connor McLaren, 17, joined St. Johnstone in the summer from Celtic and feels the U20’s team will head to Cove with confidence given recent performances. He said: “We started off pretty slow not getting the results we needed but we’re kicking on now after that win over Dunfermline a couple of weeks ago which was our first league victory. So, we’re improving week-by-week and getting better and better.”

Despite moving to McDiarmid Park from Parkhead, Connor is a local lad having grown up in the Perthshire town of Auchterarder. He believes coming to Saints will improve his chances of eventually playing first-team football: “I had to make a decision on whether I could make the first-team at Celtic. It’s a lot harder there, so I’ve come here hopefully looking to make the St. Johnstone first team. I feel this is a great family club and I’ve already been training with the first team a couple of times and it’s only going to benefit my career.”

Connor had instant success with his new club being part of the U18 side that won the Foyle Cup in Ireland last summer. The left-winger said: “I went over to Ireland in the summer with the U18s. I was still pretty new so it was a good way to settle in and get to know the boys, and we were lucky enough to win the cup. I scored two goals in the competition and assisted the first goal in the final which we won 3-0!”

The 17-year-old has been used to travelling abroad to play his football having played for Celtic in Russia, The Netherlands, Italy and China. But this weekend the youngster, who has played for Scotland at various youth levels, is focussing on Saints making it to the next round of the Scottish Cup in Aberdeen: “We have to take caution into the game with Cove Rangers so we need to have our heads on straight and take it as a regular match. Obviously, just like the league, we want to progress in cup competitions and try to win it.”