CONNOR MCLAREN ON TOMORROW'S YOUTH CUP QUARTER FINAL MATCH

Tomorrow afternoon Saints’ U20s side face Motherwell in the Scottish Youth Cup quarter finals, with winger Connor McLaren hoping his side can reproduce the performance they gave against Celtic in the previous round.

The 18-year-old from Auchterarder said, “I thought the boys played so well that day. We made a small error to let them in to score early in the match but after that I felt we were dominant throughout.”

“Celtic are cruising the U20s league at the minute and were unbeaten until that match, so it was fantastic to get a win in a game people weren’t expecting us to win. Other people might not have thought we could beat Celtic but there was a confidence in the dressing room amongst the boys that we’d do the job.”

Connor, who can play as a winger or as a striker, was one of four forwards in the line up against Celtic, which stems from an attacking football philosophy U20s manager Alec Cleland preaches on the training ground.

“Alec looks for us to play attacking football and that’s the style we’ve been trying to adopt this season. We weren’t maybe as free flowing last season but this year we’ve found it easier to score goals.

“Obviously the coaches put a lot of pressure on us to help out the defence too, especially in the wide areas to double up on their attacking wingers. But when things do break through, our defence are solid and are more than capable.”

Saints played Motherwell earlier in the league season in Airdrie with Greg Hurst scoring what proved to be the winning goal. A repeat of the same result would pair St. Johnstone against Ross County in the semi finals.

“I think we need to approach the game the same way we did against Celtic. We’ve had a good week of training and the boys are feeling confident and ready to go.

“Motherwell are a good side. When we played them earlier in the season they played a few first team players, which teams are expected to do, but I’m looking forward to seeing how both teams cope when it’s U20s v U20s.

“If you put out Celtic then people will take notice of that but I don’t think there’s any pressure on us. Motherwell will approach the game thinking they can beat us, and we’re going into it thinking we can beat them so it will be a good game.”

McLaren has spent most of the season on loan at Elgin City, where the The Black and Whites currently top League Two.

“Things have been going well being top of the league. The gaffer (Jim Weir) puts a big emphasis on wingers getting back to defend, so that’s helping me improve as a player. Hopefully we can win the league or at least make the play offs, but we’re looking to win the league.”

St. Johnstone U20s take on Motherwell tomorrow (Tuesday) afternoon in the quarter finals of the SFA 'Little Big Shot' Youth Cup. The match takes place at Station Park, Forfar, with a 2pm kick off. Admission is free.