Zach Hemming in St Mirren return vow as star hopes for another Hampden visit
Zach Hemming knows how it feels to go deep into cup competitions both as a player and a supporter.
Unfortunately his experiences – whether it was under the Wembley Arch as a Sunderland fan or at Hampden where he turned out for Kilmarnock – haven’t gone well to date. But the St Mirren keeper is looking to book a return ticket to Scotland’s national stadium in the Scottish Cup, starting by helping the Buddies beat Hearts tonight.
He said: ”It’s a big game, 100 per cent. Everyone loves the cups so hopefully we can have a little cup run. It would be nice for the club and the fans. Hopefully it’ll be a sell-out and a good atmosphere, so we will see what happens. I used to love a cup run as a fan as well.
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“Supporters love to see how far their team can go and it’s always a good day out if you get far in the competition. Sunderland beat Wycombe in the play-off final to get from League One to the Championship in 2022. I went along for that and it was a good day out.”
The 24-year-old keeper, currently in his second loan spell with the Buddies from Middlesbrough, has forged a strong relationship with the Paisley faithful after helping them to qualify for European football for the first time in 37 years.
His only frustration was not being able to strike a deal to come back up to play in the UEFA Conference League at the beginning of the campaign. Instead, Boro shipped him off on loan to Leyton Orient.
Now he’s back, Hemming is going to take one game at a time to help his team climb the league – but admits he would love to try continental football.
Hemming said: ”I struggled when I was at Orient. I got pushed out of the team about 10 games in then just kept my head down, kept training. My agent phoned me and said that Saints were looking to get me back in the January transfer window. I said, ‘Yeah, I’d love to go back and just enjoy my football again, get playing and get the kids settled back in Scotland.’
“I’ve a good connection with Langers [Jamie Langfield, Saints’ goalkeeping coach] and he seems to get the best out of me. I enjoy my football up here so I just jumped at the chance to get back again.
“I was pushing for it in the summer to come back too as I wanted so badly to play in European competition.
“Last year I felt I helped them get to Europe so I was disappointed that it didn’t work out for me in the summer. But I’ve also got to respect that Middlesbrough sent me to League One to maybe try something a little bit different at Orient after seeing me do well in the Scottish top flight. But yes, I was disappointed. I wanted to play in Europe but hopefully we can get back into Europe this year then we will see what happens. Our ambition is to do as well as we can. We just have to take it game by game.
“Obviously we have the Scottish Cup match with Hearts and if we can win that we’ll be a game closer to Hampden. As for the league, we will keep working hard and see how far we can get up the table – hopefully we can finish in the European places.”
