Jak Alnwick has batted away suggestions that Hibs battered St Mirren at Easter Road - branding it “a load of rubbish”.
Hibs manager Shaun Maloney stated after the Buddies’ 1-0 win in the capital on Saturday that Hibs had “limited” St Mirren and could have comfortably won the game 5-1.
Alnwick believes Maloney’s comments were way off the mark and was adamant his side deserved far more credit than they received for their impressive victory in Leith, with Connor Ronan’s superb strike proving to be decisive.
Now former Newcastle and Rangers stopper Alnwick hopes his Buddies can put in a similar performance and back that Hibs win up tomorrow evening when struggling St Johnstone come to Paisley.
Alnwick told Renfrewshire Live Sport: “You don’t want to get too much credit as a keeper, because you want to be as quiet as you possibly can be.
“I didn’t have loads to do. I saw a few things saying they battered us and should have won four or five-nil which is a load of rubbish, to be honest.
“I made two big saves which were at really good times for us. One was at 0-0 and the other was straight after our goal.
“But apart from those two I thought over the whole game we were definitely better in the first half. Then they had a 10, 15 minute spell at the start of the second half, and then after that we were very comfortable.
“I thought the lads defended really well and I don’t think it was down to Hibs playing badly.
“It was the way we pressed them and the game plan we had. I thought we got it down to a tee.
"If I have to make one or two big saves a game then I’ll take that all day.
“We know tomorrow is a real big one, probably one of our biggest games of the season in terms of where the league sits at the minute.
“We’re not getting ahead of ourselves but we’re a confident bunch with a lot of experience.”
Buddies fans are waiting anxiously for news of Alnwick signing a new contract with the Paisley club, having consistently impressed since joining to replace former fan favourite Vaclav Hladky.
While not ruling out staying at the SMISA Stadium, Alnwick insists it’s better for everyone involved to keep his focus on the pitch and not take his eyes of the top six prize that just eluded the club last season.
Alnwick said: “We spoke about it three months ago and agreed we’d speak about it once the window had closed.
“I spoke to the gaffer last week and he said we’d catch up this week. We’ve had so many games it’s been relentless.
“We said lets wait until we get through this run of games. I think we’re going to let the above guys talk about it and me and the gaffer will get on with what we do on a day-to-day basis.
“Because we’re in such a good place at the minute you don’t want things to get confused. We’ll just let Tony (Fitzpatrick) and my agent get on with that stuff.
“I spoke to my agent before the window even opened and told him to keep everything on the backburner. He could have 50 clubs for all I know, I’ve not spoken to him about it.
“This season is about finishing strongly. I’ve been in a good place and sometimes outside noise - as we saw a little bit with the Jamie McGrath situation - it can affect things.
“I just want to speak about it towards the end of the season and when the time is right we’ll talk more about it. I just want to concentrate on kicking on and doing as well as I can for St Mirren.
"The better I do, the better it is for St Mirren and the better it is for me at the end of the day, so everyone’s in a win-win situation.”
