Kean: I want another shot at glory

Chris Tait • Published 24 Aug 2010 12:13 0 Comments

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STEWART Kean can still vividly recall his appearance in the 2002 League Cup final with Ayr United - now he is desperate to enjoy a similar experience with Morton by gunning down St Johnstone tonight.

The striker came on as a late substitute when Ayr United met Rangers at Hampden but fell to a crushing 4-0 defeat.

But despite the result, the striker enjoyed every minute of the experience, and believes the rarity of such occasions means it mattered more to a less auspicious club like Ayr.

Kean was yesterday given the Player of the Round award for the first set of fixtures in this year’s competition.

And he told the Tele: “I played in the final with Ayr and came on as a sub against Rangers.

“It would be excellent to do that again, it was a great day. Ayr are a small club and it was a great experience for the town and everyone that day.

“They took a great support down with them and obviously we didn’t expect to win, but it’s something that doesn’t happen much and you’ve got to make the most of it when it does. That was at the end of their career for some of those boys and that was their first cup final and they told us to make the most of it.”

Ton travel to Perth tonight after thumping Stranraer 7-1 in the previous round - a match in which Kean bagged the first hat-trick of his career.

His performance earned him his player of the round accolade but the 27-year-old insisted the collective efforts of the squad - who were also presented with the Team of the Round award for their performance in the same game - are behind any individual success.

He said: “It’s good to get something like that as it’s always a wee extra bonus but the players round about you always help you.

“You can’t win things like that without the boys playing well round about you and they’ve been brilliant since I’ve been here.

“We got a win on Saturday which gives us a wee boost and hopefully we can go on to take that into Tuesday.”

By contrast, St Johnstone suffered a disappointing defeat to Aberdeen at the weekend but the SPL side will still provide a stiff contest for Ton.

Kean is not concerned by their top-flight status, though, and insisted all the pressure will be on the Perth side.

He said: “We’re the underdogs obviously but there’s no pressure on us, we can just go and play and not worry about them

“But we’ve still got to go there and win the game and that’s what we want to do. I’m sure we’ve got the players and the experience in the team that we can go and do that.”

This article appeared in Greenock Telegraph 24 Aug 10

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