Midfielder Mark O’Hara insists his Buddies must not allow their disappointing defeat in Perth dent their confidence.
St Mirren’s hopes of picking up a fourth consecutive win came crashing down at McDiarmid Park, with St Johnstone putting Stephen Robinson’s men to the sword in a clinical 3-0 victory.
The Paisley side are still sitting comfortably in the Premiership table, currently joint-sixth alongside Livingston.
And stand-in skipper O’Hara believes he and his teammates shouldn’t be too disheartened despite Saturday’s heavy loss.
O’Hara told Renfrewshire Live Sport: “It felt like it wasn’t going to be our day.
“It’s disappointing. Because of the last three games we’ve come into the match with confidence, but things just didn’t go right for us. We need to put that right.
“We didn’t get the break of the ball at the start of the second half, and they’ve scored the second at a good time and it took the sting out of us a wee bit.
“We were a bit flat and we’re disappointed. I think at times last week we ground it out, but this was a different type of game and the onus was on us to take the game to them. It just didn’t happen for us.
“It’s nine points from the first six games which is probably a good target.
“We still find ourselves in sixth place which is good.
“There’s no reason to be too down and now it’s time to go again.”
St Mirren know they will have to raise their game ahead of their upcoming league clashes, with Hearts up next at Tynecastle this Sunday and Celtic visiting Paisley the following weekend.
O’Hara believes their performance in Perth wasn’t reflected in the one-sided scoreline, with the Buddies hitting the bar and the post before Graham Carey’s late penalty put some gloss on the final result.
O’Hara added: “For their third, it was a great kick from the goalie and we were needing to commit bodies forward at that stage and try and nick a goal and try and put a bit of pressure on.
“People will see 3-0 and that probably tells a different story as to how the game went, but we need to put it right next week.
“There’s games where we will play worse than that and win.
“Hopefully at Tynecastle we can get back to how we were playing.
“Hearts will have a lot of the ball and we can hit on the break.”
