Saints eye April Fools Ayr raiser
THE first of April is traditionally a day for hoaxes and pranks but Gary MacKenzie has pin-pointed it as the date St Mirren ease their relegation fears.
Saturday’s 0-0 draw with Dunfermline had reduced the gap with second bottom Ayr United to four points and MacKenzie is hoping that when Ian McCall brings his side to Paisley at the beginning of next month it will be momentous.
The centre back feels that the pressure at the bottom has now swung on to the Somerset Park side, but he recognises that Saints still have major work to do if they are to achieve their survival aim.
He said: “The closer we get to Ayr United and even Raith Roves then the pressure starts to switch onto them.
“They are looking over their shoulders and the first thing they would have done on Saturday was look for our result.
“We’ve dealt with pressure now for months. Everyone was writing us off but now the pressure is swinging so we’ll see how they deal with it.
“We still have nine games to go so nothing has been decided yet.
“We just need to continue closing the gap so that when we get games at home against the teams round about us we can go above them. We are a point closer to the team above us and it’s a clean sheet.
“Everybody is giving everything. We are settled and we are a much better team than we were a few months ago. I think the fans can see that we are trying everything to stay up and they have been brilliant. You can’t under-value the importance of support.”