“Massive”.
That’s the one word St Mirren skipper Joe Shaughnessy used to describe Wednesday night’s trip to Dundee after suffering a third defeat on the bounce against Ross County on Saturday.
The Buddies travelled the long road to Dingwall over the weekend but came up short at Victoria Park, with Joseph Hungbo firing home the winner from the penalty spot just after the half-time break.
The Saints are still in with a strong shout of making the top six, with the middle of the Premiership standings still very congested.
But St Mirren captain Shaughnessy is desperate to avoid the pain of narrowly missing out on the top six again like last season.
The Irishman admits he and his teammates simply have to make the most of their game in hand on their top half rivals against Dundee to ensure they aren’t left looking back in anger once again come the split early next month.
Shaughnessy told Express Sport: “The Dundee game is massive for us in general.
“It would help keep the gap between us and them and St Johnstone at the bottom end.
“It’s massive for us in terms of wanting to go for the top six as well. It’s a big game.
“We want to go there and get back to creating chances and winning games.
“It’s very tight, the league is very tight. We need to get on a run and try to start that on Wednesday night.
“This squad definitely has it in us to go on a run, we’ve done that already this season and now it’s about getting over the line in one game.”
Shaughnessy issued a strong defence of new manager Stephen Robinson, who is still seeking his first point as Buddies boss after racking up three consecutive defeats.
The centre back revealed the whole St Mirren squad is buying into his vision for the club and feels it’s only a matter of time until they get back to firing on all cylinders.
Shaughnessy said: “The gaffer is a good manager and he’s done well up here before.
“Everyone is buying into what he wants us to do and it’s just a case of making things click.
“It wasn’t ideal timing (losing Jim Goodwin), but there’s transfer windows for players and there isn’t for managers.
“You just have to get on with it and that’s what we’re doing.”
In a close-fought contest in Dingwall, St Mirren defended well throughout but were undone by a penalty when Alex Gogic tripped Hungbo in the box.
Shaughnessy admits it was a tough one to take having limited Ross County’s highly-rated wingers Hungbo and Regan Charles-Cook quiet for the majority of the match.
He added: “I didn’t really feel like they were threatening us, and even after the penalty I didn’t think they were too dangerous.
“Once they went one up they defended very well and we just ran out of ideas.
“I don’t think we did enough to win the game at all, but at the same time I don’t think they threatened us too much.
“I can’t imagine it was too entertaining to watch and I thought it probably should have been a 0-0.
“We kept their two wide boys quiet most of the game but we didn’t do enough going
forward.
“They’ve been on a good run and they’ve got dangerous players, but we should have enough going forward
ourselves.
“I don’t think it was a case of thinking too much about them. I think we just couldn’t get going.
“We didn’t get our danger players involved enough.”
