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Joe’s happy to outgun strikers... but he wants to sharpen up defence
JOE SHAUGHNESSY hasn’t been shy in letting St Mirren’s strikers know he’s outgunned most of them this season.
But he admits he’s got nothing to shout about when it comes to the Paisley outfit’s defensive record.
The centre-back is Saints’ second top scorer this term with four goals.
It’s not exactly a recordbreaking haul but it is still good enough to put him just behind top marksman Eamonn Brophy, who has found the net five times for Jim Goodwin’s Buddies.
Skipper Shaughnessy has enjoyed dishing out some stick to frontmen Lee Erwin, Curtis Main and Kristian Dennis but admits Saints’ goals against column is no laughing matter.
The Irishman, whose team shipped 31 goals in 20 Premierships games before the winter shutdown, said: “I’ve just been putting a bit of pressure on the strikers and letting them know I’m coming up to help out.
“It’s good for me. This is probably the highest scoring season I’ve had and we’re only halfway.
“It’s nice to be able to chip in but I should be scoring with the quality of crossing we’ve got. We should be scoring more goals from all over the pitch.
“Even just from set-pieces we should be doing better considering the deliveries we get from Scott Tanser and Jamie McGrath.
“As defenders we should be getting on more of those. Defensively we can do better too, so it’s not just about the attack. We let four goals in up at Aberdeen, Celtic hit us for six at Parkhead.
“It frustrates me when we lose to scorelines like that, so there’s work to be done at both ends of the pitch.
“I’d rather have a clean sheet than score a goal.”
Ninth-placed Saints have drawn half of their league games already this season.
He said: “We’ve not been doing terribly and it’s not like we’ve been getting beat all the time. But we’re not getting the results we want.
“To have 10 draws at this stage is not what you want.
“No one has a God-given right to be in the top six.
“There are four or five who think they should be up there and the rest of us trying to get in. But it’s tight.
“There’s no one falling away and everyone down in the bottom six will feel they’re very similar.
“It’s just about trying to pick up some momentum between now and the split.”
Saints’ prospects could depend on whether they can fend off Aberdeen’s interest in talisman McGrath.
Shaughnessy added: “He knows we all want him to stay but he’s a big boy and I’m sure he’ll do what’s best for him.
“We’ve got to expect interest in Jamie. He’s a player who scored 17 goals last season and is now an Irish international, so it was always going to happen. From a selfish point of view I’d like him to stay.”