Jim Goodwin believes his Buddies deserve far more credit when they scalp a bigger team in the Premiership.
The Saints boss admitted he was disappointed in comments made by Hibs boss Shaun Maloney in the wake of their 1-0 victory at Easter Road on Saturday, in which he intimated the home side were the dominant force in Leith despite ending up on the losing side.
Goodwin also felt St Mirren’s performance was downplayed by BBC Sportscene, a trait he fears is all too common when the country’s so-called smaller clubs topple a team with a bigger budget and fanbase.
Ahead of this evening’s clash with St Johnstone, Goodwin told Express Sport: “We’re in a really good place at the moment.
“The Rangers defeat is our only loss in our last eight games.
“I’ve known Shaun Maloney a long time and I’m certainly not going to get into a war of words with any manager publicly.
“But I was slightly disappointed with those comments because I thought my players deserved a bit more respect than that, to be honest.
“There was a certain highlights show on Saturday night as well that I thought did us a complete disservice as well. You would swear my boys never kicked a ball watching it.
“Hibs hardly got out of their own half in the first 45 minutes. Anyone who was there, whether a Hibs fan, Saints fan or neutral, would agree.
“I was very honest in my comments after the game. We struggled with their tactical change the first 10, 15 minutes of the second half.
“I thought over the whole piece we deserved to win the game. People spoke about Hibs putting 30-odd crosses into the box but of those crosses I think my centre-backs had contact on about 30 of them.
“Sometimes I think managers try to put a bit of gloss on their own performances. My players were outstanding on the day and never let any of the Hibs players get any rhythm going.
“I think when teams like ourselves, Livingston, Ross County and St Johnstone get results against the bigger teams the emphasis always seems to be on how bad the bigger team has played.
“I don’t think that’s very fair. We had a game plan on Saturday and my boys carried it out to the letter.”
With the Buddies currently unbeaten in 2022, Goodwin is working hard to see some more key players sign up to extended deals before their contracts end in the summer.
First among them is number one keeper and top performer Jak Alwnick, but Goodwin insists the Saints will be able to replace him if he does get snapped up by another club.
Goodwin said: “I know Jak enjoys it here. He works very well with Jamie Langfield and had a great relationship with Dean Lyness and Peter Urminsky.
“I know he loves living in the Paisley and Glasgow area and he’s well settled here.
“It’s a similar situation in every year. When a player’s doing well they earn the right to go and speak to other clubs.
“We’ve made a good offer to Jak and we’ll give him a little bit more time to let him make up his mind.
“It’s not one I’m going to let run on into the summer, but I’m not putting a ridiculous amount of pressure on Jak at the moment.
“There does come a point when we get to the end of the month when we do need to know one way or the other what’s happening, because there’s a lot of other targets out there we could be going for.
“We’ve proven over the last few years we’re capable of replacing our best players.
“We don’t want to lose Jak, but if we do I’m confident we’ll be able to get another good quality goalkeeper to come in.”
