JUSTLET GOOFTHE HAMPDEN HURT
McLeish tells Saints they can’t afford hangover for crunch trip to Livingston
Craig McLeish says St Mirren can’t afford a Hampden hangover.
The interim head coach is keen to move on quickly from Sunday’s Scottish Cup defeat to Celtic.
Saints fought back from 2-0 down to dramatically take their semi-final to extratime before losing 6-2.
There was certainly pride as well as disappointment at time up – now McLeish wants a fresh look taken at the top priority when he was appointed which is securing Premiership survival.
First up is rock-bottom Livingston this Saturday at the SMiSA Stadium before clashes with Dundee, Kilmarnock, Aberdeen and Dundee United.
“It’s a sore one and it hurts,” the 36-year-old told club media.
“It has to hurt. It can’t not hurt or be sore for us.
“But we have to deal with that really, really quickly then we have to get it out of our systems.
“Our biggest challenge has always been retaining our status in the league.
“We just have to regroup, refocus, focus on Livingston and take any positives that we can – and there are positives from parts of our performance.
“We have to take as many of them as we can into the remaining five games.
“We can’t let that knock us off course.
“If we can continue playing how we are for large periods of our game then we can be in a good place come the end of the season.
“We’re not going to play against the quality of Celtic and Rangers every week.
“We’ve had some tough games – that’s five games now I’ve led the group for and they’ve all been tough ones. We’ve now got five massive, really tough, games coming up.
“But there is so much in our game that has been improving week to week.
“We just have to try and keep replicating those types of performances over those next five games and we can drag ourselves out of this situation.”
There was a lot for the gaffer to ponder once the dust settled at the weekend.
“I’m so proud of the boys and how they reacted to some early setbacks,”
McLeish reflected. “In between the two goals in the first half, I didn’t think there was overly much in it.
“We took some risks to try and get back into the game.
“Those changes we made to take risks to get back into the game they, maybe, make us a bit more open and vulnerable in extra-time.
“We have to do better and regroup when we lose the third goal. To lose the goals in the manner that we did is the disappointing bit.”
McLeish is determined to repay the faith of the blackand-white army by guiding his side to safety.
“I’m gutted for the fans that I couldn’t deliver for them [against Celtic],” he added.
“I have to deliver over the next five games. I have to deliver what they’re looking for and drag us out of this situation but I need them with us as well.”