Hat-trick of away games
St Mirren face three lengthy away trips in a row after new dates were confirmed for their Championship clashes with Dumbarton and Dundee United.
The match against Dumbarton, which had originally been moved due to The Sons’ involvement in the Irn-Bru Cup final with Inverness, will now take place at The Paisley 2021 Stadium on Tuesday, March 27, with a 7.45pm kick off.
The Buddies will be aiming to bounce back from the 1-0 defeat dished out to them the last time Stevie Aitken’s side came to town in December.
Meanwhile, the match against Dundee United, which was due to be played last Friday but was postponed due to the poor weather, will now take place at Tannadice Park on Tuesday, April 10. That game will also kick-off at 7.45pm.
That will bring to an end a tough run of three away fixtures, with the Buddies set to face Inverness Caledonian Thistle on Saturday, March 31, before taking a trip to Brechin the following Saturday.
That run takes on added importance, with games with Livingston and Morton immediately following, before the last game of the season away to Falkirk. Craig Ritchie
With only 10 games standing between St Mirren and the top flight, Jack Ross issued a rallying call to his players as he geared them up for a crunch time in the title race.
The St Mirren boss is delighted by the manner in which the Buddies have gone about their business throughout a so-far successful season in the Championship.
And Ross revealed he has called on his team to replicate their early season form over the course of the remainder of the campaign.
He told Express Sport: “We had a meeting with the players on Monday morning and I used that to reinforce to them just how good they have been pretty much all season.
“The table doesn’t lie, and they have topped the league after every quarter up until this point.
“We know that they just need to maintain the standards and all the things that they have done day-in, day-out between preseason and now.
“If they can do that, then we know that they will have a successful last quarter as well.
“We have worked incredibly hard to even get to this point, but we can’t look beyond each game. This last quarter that lies ahead of us is packed with some really big fixtures in it.
“That focus has to remain and I have faith that they will maintain that in the coming weeks.”
It has been business as usual at Ralston this week as normality was restored following a week fraught with disruption.
But Ross credited his players for the way that they handled last weekend’s conditions – highlighting 12 players who battled through the snow to make it into training when the Beast of the East was at its worst last Thursday.
He said: “That Thursday morning there wasn’t a lot of people out and about, but most of my staff made it in.
“I also made it in early and we all managed to clear a small area on the training field, and, to be fair to the 12 players who came in, they wanted to work hard.
“Friday night’s game was postponed just after they arrived, but they still wanted to train, so we managed to do some work in the snow which was good.
“That is testament to their desire and drive for this club.”
They have topped the league after every quarter up until now Jack Ross