We need to stop losing early goals, says Ross

St Mirren boss Jack Ross has called on his side to halt their early slackness in a bid to progress from the League Cup group stages.

Dale Carrick’s second minute strike consigned the Buddies to defeat at the hands of Livingston on Tuesday night, while Stranraer briefly led thanks to Scott Agnew’s opener at the weekend.

The Saints manager admits that it is a concern at this stage of the season, conceding that the pressure is now on his side to win away to top flight Partick Thistle on Saturday if they are to advance through the opening round of the competition.

Ross said: “Teams sit in when they score an early goal — that can happen regardless of the opposition.

“We are in the habit of losing early goals right now, which isn’t a good one to have because it then makes the game more difficult.

“At half time, I would have been relatively happy with the performance if we hadn’t conceded because we were dominant and getting ourselves into good areas, but in the second half we lost our way a little bit.

“The game then became a bit more scrappy because they sat in a little bit deeper.

“It’s one game, but we want to qualify from this group.

“The result makes qualifying that bit harder and it means we need to go to Firhill and win on Saturday.”

Defeat leaves Saints sitting behind Livingston in the Group H table, though Ross believes that his side didn’t deserve to fall to their first loss.

And he, once again, reserved praise for youngster Conor O’Keefe, with the winger impressing as he came off of the bench.

Ross added: “I don’t think we did enough to win the game, but I don’t necessarily think we deserved to lose it in terms of the pressure and territory of the game.

“But we didn’t play particularly well and didn’t do enough on the night to win.

“For Conor, he is at that stage now where I believe he is good enough to push towards the first team.

“He needs to grow his own self belief, but that can come with maturity sometimes. It’s an opportunity for him. He was unfortunate not to score.”

We are in the habit of losing early goals right now, which isn’t a good one to have Jack Ross