WE’LL BOUNCE BACK

Power says Saints will make breakthrough

a newspaper

Alan Power thought St Mirren were heading for a point against Hibs to give them a clean sheet.

But Ewan Henderson’s late goal consigned them to another defeat as interim manager David Gray won all three points.

And Power now knows the importance of this weekend’s game in Perth against St Johnstone, who currently occupy the relegation playoff spot.

He told Express Sport: “It looked like a 0-0.

“I thought we were pretty solid, to be honest. But they got a bit of luck with a ricochet and took the chance - their only one of the game.

“We’re not getting the rub of the green at the moment but we need to keep working away. They were better than us in the first half but we limited them to long shots.

“In the second half we came into it much more and put them on the back foot quite a bit and then the goal happens against the run of play.

“But we need to keep plugging away - we’re not feeling sorry for ourselves and we’ll bounce on to the next game.

“It is just one goal for us that could make all the difference, just to go in front again and take the confidence that comes with that.

“But we’ll work hard this week and try to take that into the St Johnstone game on Saturday.”

Power knows that Saints just need a break and a win to make their passage through until the end of the season a little easier and that’s the hope going to the Perth Saints.

The midfielder went down with Kilmarnock last season through the playoffs when it was least expected, ending the club’s 28-year stay in the Scottish Premiership.

So he is well aware that the Buddies need to confirm their top flight status for next term as soon as possible.

He continued: “Maybe we just need a little luck to go our way.

“If one of those openings had gone in for us against Hibs it might have been a different game and we’d be going to McDiarmid Park on a high.

“You can’t just keep hoping that the next game is going to be different – we have to make things happen ourselves because you run out of matches pretty quickly, as Kilmarnock and myself found out last year.

“Which is why we’re going to St Johnstone to win.

“That’s all there is to it.”

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St Mirren boss Stephen Robinson is still confident his side can see the job through to the end of the season. He suffered the eighth defeat of his nine game reign on Saturday as Ewan Henderson’s late goal gave Hibs’ caretaker manager David Gray all three points following the sacking of Shaun Maloney. And the Northern Irishman says all the result does is put even more importance one the remaining four games of the Scottish Premiership campaign. And that starts with a trip to St Determined St Mirren’s Alan Power, in action against Hibs’ Joe Newell, says the Buddies will work hard to avoid the playoff spot the criticism as results haven’t been good enough since I came in. “But we’ve got 14 or 15 fit players fighting and scrapping and I’m confident we’ll get over the line. “Yeah, it was five before today, now it’s four. “It’s still very much in our hands. “I’ll take the criticism. “I can make a million excuses but we simply haven’t got the results. “That’s not been for a want of trying or work rate - it just hasn’t gone our way. How do we change that? We work even harder.“ No excuses St Mirren manager Stephen Robinson