Eastleigh heroics, Class of 92 downed and Motherwell debut double - St Mirren's Mikael Mandron loves the cups

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Mikael Mandron wants to create another magic moment in his special cup story tonight. The St Mirren forward has racked up a string of high-profile successes in both the FA Cup and Scottish Cup.

Now Hearts are firmly in his sights ahead of tonight’s televised fifth-round showdown at the SMiSA Stadium.In the last decade, Mandron has made a name for himself in the national cup competitions north and south of the border.It all started in 2015 when he netted for Hartlepool United in a 2-0 win over Salford City who had just been taken over by the Class of 92.From there, he scored for non-league Eastleigh in 2016 who drew 1-1 with Swindon Town live on TV – he also netted in their 3-1 replay win over the Wiltshire side and they were among five goals he scored during the cup run.Mandron was on target for Crewe Alexandra in their 3-2 triumph over Bolton Wanderers in 2020 and, in his first Scottish Cup game two years ago, bagged a brace for Motherwell who won 2-0 at Arbroath.The 30-year-old also played for Gillingham in a 1-1 draw at the Stadium of Light with Sunderland – where he started his career – and was back with the Gills who narrowly lost 1-0 to Brendan Rodgers’ Leicester City just before his move to Scotland.“I don’t know what it is but I always seem to do well in the cups,” he reflected. “I’ve never had the opportunity to go far but the games I’ve played I have a good track record of scoring goals.“[At Eastleigh] we played Swindon at home and I scored a header.

We drew that game and we had a replay at their place and I scored again!“At Hartlepool, I scored against Salford in the FA Cup when they were starting to come up the leagues.