The staging posts on Jonah Ayunga’s career to date speak to a ceaseless endeavour to gain the recognition a talent deserves.
Dorchester Town, Poole Town and Havant & Waterlooville were just some of the non-league clubs the forward alighted at as he tried to forge a path to the big time. There was also a spell at Burgess Hill Town in the Isthmian League which preceded a year in Ireland split between Sligo Rovers and Galway United.
Six years ago, at the age of 22, Bristol Rovers belatedly offered him the stage he’d been looking for. From there, Morecambe, then in the same tier under Stephen Robinson, allowed him to further showcase his credentials.
For the man from the town of Beanminster in Dorset, though, it was to be a move to Scotland four years ago which belatedly gave him a sense of belonging. At St Mirren, the journeyman immediately felt at home.
‘Since I’ve been playing professional, it’s the club that I’ve been at for the longest,’ said the 28-year-old. ‘I know the people within the club that have been here throughout.
‘There’s a core of us that have been here since my first season who have now obviously won something together. It’s a club which means the most to me in my career for sure.’
Ayunga celebrates with the Premier Sports trophy that he helped fire Saints to last year
This issue was settled for good at Hampden in December. Against a Celtic side in a state of confusion from the moment Wilfried Nancy arrived, Saints had more than a puncher’s chance of claiming the League Cup.
But such occasions still require heroes to turn opportunity into victory. Ayunga was that man on that day, scoring twice in the second half to seal a famous triumph for the Buddies.
A man of the match award and a winner’s medal would have meant the world to anyone. His circuitous route to the arena added another layer to the sense of satisfaction.
‘There was none of me expecting that as I was growing up,’ he offered. ‘Back then, I wasn’t really aware of what it would mean to come up here and win a cup for St Mirren. That’s not what you’re thinking about. You’re just thinking about getting as high as you can in the game and then winning stuff is an added bonus.
‘I didn’t start playing professional until I was 18. Pushing to try and win stuff had just never been there. You’re looking at it from afar, watching people playing professional thinking “that would be amazing” but you’re nowhere near it. It does mean a lot and it’s there forever now.’
He knew it at the time, and he’s been reminded of it since whenever his cover has been blown in the town centre.
‘A few times I’ve been into Paisley, you get a good shout, you get a good recognition, which is probably the biggest respect anyone can pay you,’ he said. ‘It’s nice to be the one that made the difference in the end. That’s what you dream of as a striker.
‘You’re thinking — “I need to be the one that steps up and wins it for the team”. If everyone does their job and I do mine, then we’ll be able to win the game. And that’s what happened.’
Ayunga heads coolly past Kasper Schmeichel to put the Buddies ahead against Celtic at Hampden in December
His joy at parading the trophy on the open top boss was enhanced by the fact that he had his two-year-old son Amari for company.
‘It meant I couldn’t do anything,’ he smiled. ‘He came back repeating some crazy phrases to be fair.
‘Just to be there in that moment was massive for everyone.’
It supposed to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Yet, here he is, four months on, with Celtic and Hampden in his sights again, this time in the Scottish Cup semi-final.
There will be two new faces in the dug-out with Martin O’Neill and Craig McLeish standing where Nancy and Robinson were that day. But St Mirren’s belief is unchanged. Although they narrowly lost at Parkhead in the league last weekend, they departed knowing they were always in the contest.
‘I think there’s a lot of positives from both those games,’ Ayunga, a Kenya international, reflected. ‘The goal we lost in the defeat is not one where we feel like they’ve outplayed us and scored a great goal. I think it’s a preventable one.
‘We’ve looked at stuff we can tweak this week and hopefully that makes a difference. I think it’s going to be a very different game, obviously, two different managers. There’ll be a few different faces in each team.
‘I don’t really want to go in more confident. I want that same feeling of being worried that you’re going to lose if you don’t turn up fully.’
Ayunga has been in Scotland long enough to be familiar with how it works. The narrative after that final was predominantly about Celtic’s shortcomings rather than how brilliantly the winners played.
‘That’s fine,’ he shrugged. ‘No matter what the result is, if we manage to get a result, it’ll be about how poor Celtic have been — not that we deserve to win. That’s always the noise around this fixture.
‘Everyone will be looking at Celtic and expecting them to just pass through. It’s up to us to upset them.’
Ayunga was previously at Bristol Rovers, before making his way to St Mirren in 2022
The addition of Jacob Devaney to the squad for the latter half of the season gives Ayunga another reason to believe that they can take Celtic again.
At Parkhead last week, there was an extraordinary statistic showing that the on-loan Manchester United midfielder completed more forward passes than Callum McGregor, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Benjamin Nygren combined. This spells good news for the Paisley side’s forwards.
‘I think it’s the calmness on the ball,’ Ayunga added. ‘He’s always showing, he’s always ready to take the ball and he rarely loses it. If he gets the chance to play forward, he’s got that in his locker as well.
‘He’s very important to getting us to play forward. You know if it goes into him, it’s sticking so you can time your movement. He’s good to have on the team.’
Devaney has been a welcome addition to a group which has recently known tangible success. That storied victory at the end of last year has only whetted the appetite for more.
‘There’s definitely more of an expectation from their side,’ said Ayunga. ‘But we want it more than ever. Now we’ve tasted it, we want to get to that final again and see if we can lift another trophy.’
