Paisley Daily Express

SAINTS ASSISTANT BOSS STAYS POSITIVE WE WILL COME BACK FIGHTING

O’Carroll reckons seventh spot belongs to Buddies

- KYLE GUNN

a newspaper

PLUS DON’T PART TWO DIARMUID O’CARROLL

St Mirren assistant manager Diarmuid O’Carroll has bemoaned the defending from the Buddies since he and Stephen Robinson took over.

The pair have seen only one victory since replacing Jim Goodwin who departed for Premiershi­p rivals Aberdeen earlier this year. And speaking exclusivel­y to Express Sport, O’Carroll says his frustratio­n comes over the simplicity of the conceded goals.

“We have to take our share of the blame, we have tried to come in and tweak small things, not major things.

“But if we can get just a couple of results between now and the summer, we can really attack it.

“It’s the first thing me and the gaffer do, look at back at ourselves and think what could we do different.

“The bottom line is we haven’t defended crosses very well and we’ve not changed anything the boys did previously or drasticall­y changed the system, when we went to a three for the Celtic game.

“Other than that we’ve defended in the same way.

“We would prefer it there was something glaringly wrong and we could try and fix it.

“Especially the Ross County game and the Dundee United game, they’re the two games, I look at and say we should have taken results from those games.

“It’s disappoint­ing in the short term”

Despite the results so far, O”Carroll is adamant that former Motherwell manger Robinson can turn the season around and finish top of the bottom six.

The run of post split games starts with a home fixture against Shaun Maloney’s Hibs a week on Saturday, who are only two points ahead of the hosts, currently sitting seventh.

But the Paisley number two says they want to win every game between now at the end of the season, in order to hit the ground running next term.

O’Carroll added: “We put ourselves under pressure, we want to win games.

“It’s not been good enough. “We have five more chances. “We say, can we end the season with four wins and a draw or five wins?

“We have goalkeeper Jak Alnwick (pictured below) back from suspension and we’ve missed Connor Ronan at times through suspension.

“The likes of Flynn, Tanser, Kiltie and Main is feeling better.

“It means we’ll have a bit more of a full squad to choose from to attack the end of the season with.

“We’re very much looking to win every game if we can but in particular next Saturday with Hibs to get the result we need in the short term.

“Then attack the last four games and end the season on a real

positive.”

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 ?? ?? Team work aints gaffer Stephen Robinson and assistant manager Diarmuid O’Carroll
Team work aints gaffer Stephen Robinson and assistant manager Diarmuid O’Carroll

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