BY KYLE GUNN

St Mirren striker Cody Cooke has warned his teammates not to underestimate already-relegated Dundee this lunchtime. 

The Buddies will avoid the play-offs if they better Hamilton’s result against St Johnstone when they travel to Dens Park. 

And the 26-year-old, who is the only Alan Stubbs signing still at the club, says the squad are looking forward to the end of season showdown despite not knowing what to expect from the Dens Park side.

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He said: “It makes them very dangerous. With a change of manager and boys fighting for contracts, the pressure is off. From our point of view, we go into it not knowing how they’ll play. They could play any formation or personnel so we go into it a bit blind from what we are used to. Their result last week with no pressure meant they could go and play freely.

“The main feeling is we’re excited about it. Everyone at different stages of their career has been through pressurised situations. This is one we can thrive off and, for me personally, I think this week has been exciting and there’s a general buzz around. We’ve been written off for so long that now it’s within touching distance and we can almost see an end.”

Cooke was relegated with previous club Truro City and admits he doesn’t want to go through that feeling again with the importance of St Mirren securing a second season in the Premiership is not lost on the big striker either. 

He continued: “It was totally different. I was playing part-time and non-league at the time. It was set in stone in a way because we had points deducted throughout the year from financial issues and administration. You’re written off the whole year. It was 10 points off so it was a different kind of challenge. We knew for the whole year we’d be relegated. It was about ticking boxes and getting through games - this has been completely different.

"There was a chance of us staying but it was always more than likely we were going down. But there were people fighting for contracts so it was a different kind of pressure to this one. But it’s one we can hopefully relish.That was at Truro. The year after we got promoted we bounced back.

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“There have been massive changes throughout the year. You can see from Monday night and the fans how much it means. We’ve put everything we could into this year as a group of players. That’s the mindset going into Saturday – that we tick those boxes and do everything we can on that pitch."

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