St Mirren goalkeeper Jak Alnwick putting off contract talks until the new year

St Mirren goalkeeper Jak Alnwick is planning to wait until the new year to make a decision over his future.

The 28-year-old has been the Buddies number one for the past year and a half, but is out of contract at the end of the season.

The Paisley club are keen to extend Alnwick’s deal but the former Rangers keeper intends to take his time and mull over his options.

He said: “The club have made it clear that they want me to stay. We’ve spoken a little bit about it but we’ve said we’ll review it around January time because we don’t want to do anything too early.

“I just want to focus on playing football and keeping my form high because sometimes when there are things going on outside of football, such as contracts, it can distract people. We want to get over the Christmas period and then we’ll sit down when we’ve got the time, probably over the winter break, and discuss things properly.

“The club’s been brilliant. They understand my situation, I understand their situation. It’s fine moving forward. I’m definitely happy here, so we’ll see how things go come winter-break time.”

After an impressive first season at St Mirren, Alnwick has bounced back strongly from a torrid afternoon at Celtic Park in August in which he was at fault for at least two of the hosts’ goals in a 6-0 win.

Speaking ahead of his side’s cinch Premiership clash at home to Livingston on Saturday, he said: “You’re never going to have a run of form for two years. You can look at even the best footballers in the world and to sustain two years without having a single mistake is going to be tough.

“Similar to (Rangers keeper) Allan McGregor now, if you look at his form last season, it was amazing. This season, I’m not saying he’s been poor or anything, but he’s probably not done quite as well as last season. Sometimes you’ve just got to get through it.

“I had a poor first half against Celtic and then in the second half I came out and made a lot of saves. Then from there I kept two clean sheets off the back of it. As a goalkeeper, you’re going to concede goals and have bad games. It’s about how you react to it.

“Since that Celtic game my performances have probably been as good as they were last season, which I’m quite pleased about. It’s just about trying to keep it going on a consistent basis until the end of the season. I had a brilliant year last year so a couple of mistakes isn’t going to make me think I’m a terrible goalkeeper.”