St Mirren manager Gary Teale refuses to see tonight's SPFL game against Celtic as one that his team can effectively write off.

 

The Paisley side have found themselves four points adrift at the foot of the table with the remaining weeks of the campaign fraught with anxiety as they attempt to cling on to their survival in the top flight. The club were last relegated in 2001 - and it took five seasons before they returned to the SPFL. For the last nine seasons they have held on to their status but this term it looks to be in serious jeopardy.

It has been a wretched campaign for St Mirren and nowhere more so than on their own turf. It was only last month that they finally managed their first - and to date only - home win of the season.

They go into this evening's game against a Celtic side who have grown in momentum since the turn of the year to such an extent that they are now hunting down a domestic treble.

Teale, an admirer of the progressive ideas of his opposite number tonight, will be taking a leaf out of Celtic's book as he plots a way to get a performance from his Saints side that could provide the catalyst to them staying in the league this season.

"I actually love watching Celtic," he said. "I think they are trying to play football the right way. I have a lot of admiration for Ronny Deila because he went into a very successful dressing room and shook things up a lot and that takes a lot of courage and a lot of belief in your own way of doing things.

"You can see that they are starting to get their rewards now.

"They play with a pace and an energy and a tempo that I would like us to play with. Obviously it's difficult to compare because of the massive gulf in resources but ideally that is the way I'd like us to play as a team.

"But for tonight's game it is a lot like the way Celtic play when they are taking on one of the big European teams. We need to play with our heads. We need to accept that they are the better team - and work out how we can be as hard to beat as possible.

"We need to see some desire from the players. The work-rate has to be there and if you stay committed then you always have an outside chance of snatching something."

As St Mirren search for the points that will keep them in the top flight, Teale is hopeful that a Friday night game on the holiday weekend will draw out a decent crowd in Paisley.

"I love midweek games under the floodlights," said Teale. "I know traditionalists would much rather we stuck to a 3pm on a Saturday afternoon but I have to say that I think the Friday night games can give the stadium a real bit of energy.

"You can get guys coming along to the game with their mates to kick off the weekend and it helps to generate a bit of an atmosphere within the ground.

"We have a full squad available to us for this game and it is one where we are seen as massive underdogs.

"We have some really tough games where the pressure will be on against the likes of Motherwell and Ross County in the next few weeks so in many ways this is a game where we can afford to go out and enjoy it.

"If you can't enjoy playing against Celtic, then you shouldn't be playing football."