ST MIRREN captain Stephen McGinn believes their last-minute winner against Livingston on Saturday could be the catalyst for a remarkable survival bid.
The Paisley side have been written off on plenty of occasions in what has largely been a dismal campaign.
But they finally got the break they needed in horrible conditions when Ryan Flynn poked home a last-gasp winner to fire his side to within one point of Dundee in 11th place.
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In truth, St Mirren were second best for long spells to a Livingston team who just lacked the scoring instinct.
But they dug in and that late goal could mean so much to them as they built on encouraging draws at Aberdeen and Hearts to secure just their third home league win of the season.
And midfielder McGinn is determined that St Mirren kick on from here. He said: “It feels significant, not even just the last-minute goal, but actually the clean sheet and the way we defended, which gave us such a chance to win the game.
“The way the boys played in the last two away games was brilliant, but we had to back it up with a win. I don’t think we ever felt like we were miles away. What we’d lacked was a bit of quality in both boxes but we now look as if we can score goals and keep a clean sheet to build on.
“It was labelled a must-win and I suppose quite a lot of our remaining games are must-win, but it’s a strange league in Scotland.
“We still play Hamilton and Dundee twice, so we’ve got so many opportunities and cup finals left. But performing well is a nice habit to get into and I can’t exaggerate how big the clean sheet is.
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“I tell you what, if you had to pick any team in the world not to play against in those conditions then it would be Livingston. We know Livi well, we know them inside out and know what they are good at. We respect what they do, they’re good at it and you have to stand up to it. The boys did that [on Saturday].
“When the goal went in, I looked at the clock and saw ‘89’ and I’ve never wished a clock to go faster.
“But I think if we achieve survival this could probably be the one game that we look back on and say ‘That’s where we did it. There’s still a lot of work to do though. There are massive games to come and we’ve got to build on this.”
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