Soccer
Craig McLeish wants St Mirren to continue raising the bar
St Mirren boss Craig McLeish challenged his side to continue reaching the heights of their first-half performance in their 1-0 victory over Kilmarnock.
The Buddies continued their excellent start to the Premiership with a deserved victory at Rugby Park.
Fraser Taylor swept home his first goal for the club after three minutes to guide St Mirren to their first league success at Killie since 2013.
Saints found themselves forced onto the back foot for spells during the second half, but showed another side to their game as they held firm to make it 10 points from their opening four games.
“The first half was excellent, I thought some of the stuff we played was great,” McLeish said.
“I’m probably just a bit disappointed that we didn’t add more to it.
“I wanted the second half to look exactly like the first half, but we know there’s going to be spells in games where we suffer without the ball at times.
“I probably need to get more comfortable in those situations because I just want us to have the ball all the time.
“It’s our third clean sheet in the league which is ultimately the foundation of what our success needs to be built on.
“You have to be tough to play against in this league, we built success in recent times by being tough to play against, we just didn’t score enough goals.”
Reflecting on a first league win at Kilmarnock in 13 years, McLeish hopes his side can continue to find the formula for success.
They now turn their attention to a meeting with champions Celtic on Saturday evening, with victory potentially taking Saints to the top of the table.
“Someone said it was our first league win at Rugby Park in quite some time,” McLeish added.
“We’re coming away to tough venues, from the start of the game we showed probably the best version of what we want to be.
“The boys will get frustrated at me because I want that for 90 minutes, keep asking them for more and trying to raise their standards — they are raising the bar every single week.”
Although there was more disappointment for Killie, Rugby Park boss Neil McCann is certain things will change for his team.
The hosts were much improved in the second half but lacked the cutting edge required to get back into the game.
“I actually feel for the players if I’m being honest,” McCann said.
“After four minutes, you are 1-0 down again and you can feel the tension within the stadium.
“It’s not what we want or what we work on, you can almost see them for that little part after the goal going into a shell — that’s understandable.
“I felt we gathered ourselves and completely dominated the second half without really showing our quality.
“This has been a difficult start, after four league games we’ve not got any points yet.
“But I know there’s enough in that dressing room that once it clicks, and I know it will click, we’ll start motoring.”
