BEN RAMAGE
‘Season wil be played out in full’
Jim Goodwin insists he’s confident this Scottish Premiership campaign will be played to a conclusion.
The Buddies have been hit by coronavirus once again this week, with three players ruled out of today’s clash with Motherwell.
St Mi r ren manager Goodwin believes the season will be played to an end, with clubs simply having to adapt to the new challenge.
He told Express Sport: “I don’t have concerns that the season won’t finish. You’ve got to take it week by week.
“We will get there. The difficulty we have at the moment is you see the way the English Premier League finished last season.
“All those players were taken away into hotels and really had a proper bubble with no interaction with the outside world.
“If we are going to contain the virus, they are the kind of levels we need to go to.
“But unfortunat e l y , financially, we just don’t have
Reach PLC aims to manage its business to minimise environmental impacts, is committed to reducing the waste we produce and maximising the recycling and reuse of waste. Reach Printing Services Ltd is committed to source newsprint from sustainably managed forests, is independently audited and continues to meet the certification requirements of standards: ■ ISO 14001:2015 EMS (BMT-1420) ■ ISO 9001: 2015 QMS (BMT-6396 ) ■ ISO 45001: 2018 OHSMS (BMT-318) ■ PEFC ST 2002:2013 Chain of Custody (BMT-PEFC-0949) ■ FSC-STD-40 (V3.0) EN and FSC-STD-50-001 (V2.0) EN for FSC® Chain of Custody (TT-COC-003396)
the power to do that. So these things are going to happen along the way.
“As a manager, you can take injuries and suspensions as they are part and parcel of the game. We cannot control this virus, unfortunately.
“It’s out there and is causing numerous problems to everyone. Footballers aren’t immune to it either.
“As a club, we are doing absolutely everything to the letter that we are being asked too do.”
The Saints stayed in the top tier last season thanks to a crucial win over Hearts in what turned out to be the final game of the campaign.
Goodwin admits that his side must get clear of the danger zone before they reach a similar stage again, in case they get caught out at the bottom of an early finish this time around.
When asked if it was important not to be bottom if the season ends abruptly, he said: “Without a doubt. If it happened last season, there’s no reason why it couldn’t happen this season if we went into a complete lockdown again around about February or March. “Last season, there was enough of the league games fulfilled before the season ended.
“I’m not concerned about that happening any time soon, but I’m well aware it could happen again.
“I don’t think any club out there could have any argument if it did.”
St Mirren welcome Motherwell to Paisley this afternoon, looking to pick up their first league points in six games.
Goodwin knows his side will have to put in better performances than they managed in their opening Betfred Cup ties to come away with anything this afternoon.
He added: “Picking up runners from midfield is something we have spoken about.
“The Partick Thistle game was alarming because of the amount of times that it happened.
“There was probably three or four occasions where Shea Gordon ran from deep and ended up in our box unopposed.
“We’ve done the analysis and looked at it and the players can see for themselves what was happening.
“I put it down to lapses in concentration and that didn’t happen against Aberdeen the previous Friday night.
“There were no midfield runners, so I have to think that, subconsciously, maybe the players approached that game thinking it was going to be a little bit easier than how it turned out.
“Stephen Robinson was at the game and I said to the players on Monday, ‘As much as we analyse teams, teams are analysing us as well’, and, if I was an opposing manager having watched that Partick game back, I’d be thinking to get the midfield to run off the back of them.
“Allan Campbell and Liam Polworth do that naturally and they’re very good at it. They’re full of energy. I
“I’m not going to sit here and say it’s something that we haven’t discussed or that we’re not working on it.
“We have to make sure we don’t give up those kind of opportunities against Motherwell.
“We didn’t get punished against Partick, but I believe we would get punished by better opposition, and Motherwell are certainly better opposition than Partick, so we have to be careful.”