St Mirren midfielder Keanu Baccus says he is \u201cabsolutely buzzing\u201d at the chance to play in Sunday\u2019s Premier Sports Cup Final against Celtic after returning to the club in the summer.<\/p>\n
The Australian international played a key role in Saints\u2019 first top-six finish in 2023 and European qualification the following season before moving to England, and he admits the prospect of big occasions like this was a major factor in his decision to come back.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m absolutely buzzing,\u201d Baccus said. \u201cYou don\u2019t get a lot of opportunities to play in finals. My first time at Hampden was the semi-final and it was an amazing feeling, and now another one on Sunday. I can\u2019t wait.\u201d<\/p>\n
Baccus says the squad are fully aware of the significance of the occasion and how rare these chances can be in a player\u2019s career.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can go through your whole career, play so many games and then look back and there\u2019s not many trophies to your name,\u201d he said. \u201cSo it\u2019s a big chance on Sunday for us and as a group we know that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was here for two years before and didn\u2019t get this opportunity. There\u2019s still a chunk of players here who didn\u2019t get it either, so everyone knows how big it is.\u201d<\/p>\n
The midfielder admitted watching Saints\u2019 European run after his departure only reinforced his desire to return.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I was here, the objective was to make top six and we did that two years in a row, which was amazing,\u201d he said. \u201cI moved on and didn\u2019t get to play my part in the European stuff, but watching the boys on those European nights, it just looked amazing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was definitely a big reason why I came back. I didn\u2019t know it would happen so soon, but it\u2019s an amazing feeling to be part of a cup final.\u201d<\/p>\n
Baccus says settling back in has been straightforward, helped by familiar faces and clear communication from the coaching staff.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been very good,\u201d he said. \u201cThere were still a lot of players here that I knew, good mates and good people around the place, including the staff. It made it very easy to come back in.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just need to get that momentum back and I think the win against Dundee was important for that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The midfielder was also pleased to get back on the scoresheet recently.<\/p>\n
\u201cFinally,\u201d he laughed. \u201cA lot of people were telling me that. I\u2019ve had a fair few shots this season, so it was nice to get the tap-in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Looking ahead to Sunday\u2019s opponents, Baccus expects a stern test but insists Saints will approach the final with confidence.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no bigger feeling than playing Celtic,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019ve been there or thereabouts for years and you kind of expect them to be in finals.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we\u2019ve gone toe-to-toe with them in the last couple of games. The margins have been really small and we take a lot of heart from those performances.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite Celtic scoring late winners in both league meetings this season, Baccus believes Saints can take belief from how tight those matches were.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat last one, you\u2019re unlucky to concede like that late on,\u201d he said. \u201cThat strike, you can\u2019t do much about it. But we remember those performances.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s another game, another battle, and come Sunday we\u2019ll be ready for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Baccus echoed manager Stephen Robinson\u2019s message of respect without fear going into the final.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s nothing to lose,\u201d he said. \u201cWe go front foot, positive, give it our best shot. We\u2019re confident, especially coming off the win, and if we play like St Mirren we\u2019ll give it a great crack.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also praised the backing Saints will receive at Hampden, with more than 13,000 supporters expected.<\/p>\n
\u201cMassive,\u201d he said. \u201cEvery away game, every home game, the fans turn up in numbers. The semi-final atmosphere was brilliant and we want that again on Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re definitely a 12th man for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
You can view the full interview here on St Mirren’s You Tube channel:\u00a0 https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=N7bikBYB78Q<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Headline image: Keanu Baccus<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" St Mirren midfielder Keanu Baccus says he is \u201cabsolutely buzzing\u201d at the chance to play in Sunday\u2019s Premier Sports Cup Final against Celtic after returning to the club in the summer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":179717,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,139],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-179716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football","category-scottish-league-cup"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/renfrewshire24.co.uk\/sport\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Keanu-Baccus.jpg","featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/renfrewshire24.co.uk\/sport\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Keanu-Baccus.jpg",1206,611,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/renfrewshire24.co.uk\/sport\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Keanu-Baccus-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/renfrewshire24.co.uk\/sport\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Keanu-Baccus-300x152.jpg",300,152,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/renfrewshire24.co.uk\/sport\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Keanu-Baccus-768x389.jpg",640,324,true],"large":["https:\/\/renfrewshire24.co.uk\/sport\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Keanu-Baccus-1024x519.jpg",640,324,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/renfrewshire24.co.uk\/sport\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Keanu-Baccus.jpg",1206,611,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/renfrewshire24.co.uk\/sport\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Keanu-Baccus.jpg",1206,611,false],"joomsport-thmb-medium":["https:\/\/renfrewshire24.co.uk\/sport\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Keanu-Baccus-310x157.jpg",310,157,true],"rn-home-thumb":["https:\/\/renfrewshire24.co.uk\/sport\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Keanu-Baccus.jpg",320,162,false],"rn-home-rect":["https:\/\/renfrewshire24.co.uk\/sport\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Keanu-Baccus.jpg",480,243,false]},"author_info":{"display_name":"Ricky Kelly","author_link":"https:\/\/renfrewshire24.co.uk\/sport\/author\/mudricky\/"},"category_info":"Football<\/a> Scottish League Cup<\/a>","tag_info":"Scottish League Cup","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renfrewshire24.co.uk\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renfrewshire24.co.uk\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renfrewshire24.co.uk\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renfrewshire24.co.uk\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renfrewshire24.co.uk\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179716"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/renfrewshire24.co.uk\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179716\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":179720,"href":"https:\/\/renfrewshire24.co.uk\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179716\/revisions\/179720"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renfrewshire24.co.uk\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renfrewshire24.co.uk\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renfrewshire24.co.uk\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renfrewshire24.co.uk\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}