JACK Ross has told his St. Mirren players they will have to replicate the performance they produced against Celtic in their William Hill Scottish Cup quarter-final at Parkhead yesterday if they want to avoid relegation this season.
Ross revealed that his team, five points behind Ayr United at the bottom of the Ladbrokes Championship table, had been disappointed not to defeat the Scottish champions away from home yesterday.
The Paisley club had led 1-0 at half-time courtesy of a Harry Davis goal in the 13th minute and nearly went 2-0 in front when Stephen Mallan had a free-kick turned onto the underside of the opposition crossbar early in the second half.
However, the St. Mirren manager, whose team defeated second tier leaders Hibs 2-0 at home last Wednesday night, wants to see the same level of commitment from now on, starting in their league meeting with Raith Rovers at Stark’s Park on Wednesday evening.
Told that Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers had labelled St. Mirren the toughest opponents they had come up against domestically in the 2016/17 campaign, Ross said: “It’s a good compliment for the players. They should take satisfaction from that, realising what a good team they are.
“I’ve spoken about it since the window closed. I believe we have a stronger squad now with a better balance. They should take enormous satisfaction from it.
“But, equally, they need to have a desire to prove it game in, game out. They need to take the level of performance from our last few games into Wednesday and beyond.”
He added: “The first emotion for us after the game was disappointment because we did come here to win and progress to the semi-finals.
“People might think that was foolhardy, but that was our ambition. We were halfway towards doing that, so there is that disappointment that we haven’t managed to achieve what we wanted to.
“But when you put that aside, there is pride in how we performed and in how well we made Celtic have to play to win the game.
“They are a very good team and very powerful when they are in full flight. They are very difficult to stop and that was the case once they got that first goal.”
Ross admitted the final outcome of the game could have been different if Mallan’s second half free-kick had gone in.
“You just don’t know how things would have panned out after that,” he said. “To win here you need to play very well and you need good fortune. That moment was possibly that little extra bit of fortune we needed today, but it didn’t come our way. If it had gone in, we possibly could have progressed. But it didn’t and thereafter it was difficult for us.
“I’m just pleased the two goals towards the end (Dedryck Boyata and Leigh Griffiths had goals chalked off by referee Steven McLean) were disallowed because it would have put an unfair reflection on things. I think 4-1 is even a bit harsh on us but that’s what can happen when you play Celtic.”
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