BY KYLE GUNN

St Mirren boss Jim Goodwin has heaped praise on utility man Lee Hodson after the Northern Ireland international joined on loan from Gillingham until the end of the season. 

Hodson made 21 appearances for Saints last campaign while on loan from Rangers as he helped the club retain their Premiership status.

However, with the 28-year-old not playing regular first team football recently down at the Gills, the Paisley gaffer snapped him up quickly.

And Goodwin also gave an update on Paul McGinn’s potential move to Hibs ahead of the January transfer window slamming shut tonight. 

“Losing Kyle Magennis against Rangers was a blow so we made contact with Lee to see if he was interested and thankfully we were able to get a deal done with Gillingham," the gaffer said.

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“He’s a great one in terms of him being a utility player who can play a number of different positions for us which will come in handy.

“It speaks volumes for how much he enjoyed being here last season, not necessarily the relegation battle, and he still knows quite a few of the players. 

“He knows the league and the club and he trained with the boys. He’s a Northern Ireland international, still at a great age and you can see the quality he’s got.

“Lee will really enhance the squad and group and the fact he can play a number of positions is a real plus for us.

“Obviously Hibs are keen for Paul and any player going into the last six months of their contract is entitled to speak to any club they want. 

“Paul can sign a pre-contract with anyone. We didn’t plan on losing anyone and I didn’t tell anyone they were free to leave the club because I wanted to add. 

“Unfortunately players get their heads turned sometimes and Hibs are a big club and Paul’s worked with Jack in the past so I can understand it. 

“But, at the same time, it’s got to suit us as well because I’m not going to just let Paul walk out the club and weaken us and strengthen Hibs. 

“Whether that’s financially or whether we get a player, I don’t know. If it doesn’t happen then Paul stays and he can go to Hibs in the summer.”

Goodwin takes the Buddies to Easter Road to face Hibs tomorrow, in a repeat of his first game as a Premiership manager.

The Irishman didn’t take anything from the game on the opening day of the season, losing out to very late Scott Allan strike. 

But he saw enough from that game to give him hope that if his side were more clinical then they could have taken something from Leith.

He added: “We’ve been solid defensively and we’ve had a lot of credit for that side of our game but I’d love to be getting more plaudits for our goalscoring because that’s the part we need to do better.

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"We speak about it every week and we’ve been working with the players on a daily basis, hoping that at some point it’ll click and we’ll bang in two or three to kill some team off.

“However, at this moment in time we’re not quite ruthless enough. Against Aberdeen on Sunday we had a couple of really good chances but we still couldn’t find the back of the net.

“It would be more worrying if we were shipping them at the back and not scoring but the fact we have a good structure there bodes well but draws aren’t enough for us – we need to win games and we’ll try and do that on Saturday.”

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