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Saints boss not down after defeat

St Mirren manager Jim Goodwin reckons the Buddies could have snatched a point on another day.

Saints ran Rangers close on a sun-soaked day in Paisley but ultimately Borna Barisic’s second-half free-kick proved the difference.

Goodwin conceded that his side certainly didn’t deserve to win the clash, but reckons if chances and penalty calls had gone their way, then they could have grabbed a draw.

The St Mirren boss said: “I’m not going to say that we deserved to win the game because we didn’t. Rangers were the better team. But I felt my players were organised.

“We worked on allowing Rangers to have possession in the middle of the pitch, forcing them wide because we knew they wanted to play through us because they don’t have a great presence in there.

“We coped well with that.

“Vaclav Hladky made two saves but apart from that he didn’t have a great deal to do.

“We contained Rangers well but there’s also the frustration about us trying to do a little bit better with the ball because I felt in the second half we invited waves of attack.

“We weren’t able to get up the pitch and that was the most disappointing thing.

“Rangers have quality in their team and for them to beat us with some brilliance from Borna Barisic to break us down, the players deserve a lot of credit.

“I was claiming for the penalty when Jon was brought down in the first half, but I don’t know how much of a penalty it was. From my angle, I felt Helander slipped and Obika was going by him.

“You hope against the Old Firm that decisions go your way.

“But I’m not going to point the finger at the referee.”

St Mirren have now navigated a tricky start to the campaign having kicked off their Premiership campaign with games against Hibs, Aberdeen and Rangers.

And Goodwin reckons now is the time for his side to kick on having impressed in their three matches so far.

Goodwin added: “We have had three difficult games and I’d have taken three points before those games. Nobody would have argued if we’d taken a point at Hibs and had we could have nicked one today, if things have gone in our favour.

“Unfortunately they didn’t.

“We have games now coming up against the likes of Ross County, Livingston and St Johnstone and it is there where we really need to get results.

“We aren’t going to be judged on results against Rangers and Celtic.”