THE ONLY WAY IS UP

Saints gaffer Goody says new squad is shaping up

Jim Goodwin reckons the only way is up for his newlook St Mirren.

The Irishman has been grafting behind the scenes all summer in a bid to lure new signings to the Paisley club.

Sean McLoughlin, Sam Foley, Ilkay Durmus and Jonathan Obika were all handed their debuts against Hibs at the weekend.

And despite the eventual 1- 0 defeat, Goodwin believes the signs are positive that everything is now falling in to place following a frustrating few weeks were no additions were made.

Goodwin said: “We just have to be careful with them because we don’t want to be asking too much of them too early and they end up breaking down and getting injured.

“I felt Sam Foley was outstanding in the middle of the pitch, breaking things up and keeping things simple.

“Ilkay Durmus showed what he is capable of in terms of getting forward, being positive and getting at people.

“It is never great mentioning names but I felt the four debutants in particular, considering they were still getting to know the lads, were great.

“Sean McLoughlin and Gary MacKenzie looked great together and gave us a good bit of balance at the back as well.

“And big Jon comes on with 35 minutes to go and you can see he is a presence and see he has a bit of quality.

“Once we have those guys up to speed then we will be in an a lot better position.”

The past week has been relentless for Goodwin as he worked tirelessly in order to even have a big enough squad for the opening day of the season.

He was impressed by the way the new players managed to gel into the squad so quickly but conceded it had been difficult.

However, with another few days having now worked with the players, the gaffer is excited about what the future holds.

Goodwin added: “Four of the boys only met each other on the Monday, five days before the first game of the league season.

“That doesn’t allow you a great deal of time with them to get them up to speed.

“Two or three of them were lacking in fitness.

“That was Ilkay Durmus’ first game in six weeks, for example.

“But I think you can see the quality that we have added just in that one performance.

“We are not getting carried away, of course we are not because at the end of the day we lost the game.”