BEN RAMAGE
Jim Goodwin paid tribute to his battling Buddies for playing through the pain barrier to aid their top-six push.
St Mirren picked up a point against Motherwell last night in a game that had originally been forfeited as a 3-0 win to the Steelmen.
After their successful SFA appeal, the Saints played out a goalless draw with the Lanarkshire side that pushed them two points clear of nearest top- half rivals Dundee United and three ahead of St Johnstone.
Key midfielders Jamie McGrath and Jake Doyle- Hayes both put in dogged performances despite being surprise inclusions after suffering shoulder and foot injuries respectively.
And Goodwin believes he’s fortunate to have such strong-willed characters in his dressing room, with his battle-weary side putting in a serious shift to ensure they kept a point in Paisley.
He told Express Sport : “It absolutely could be a good point. I have boys in the dressing room who are all disappointed after taking a point against Motherwell.
“People will talk about all the injuries Motherwell have, but we have our own problems. We played a game there with two boys who were probably only 80 per cent fit.
“They’re a good side who were wanting to come here and make amends for their poor result on Saturday.
“We respect the opposition as always and, in the end, we didn’t do enough to win the game.
“It’s a positive result for us because, a few months ago, it was down as a 3-0 defeat.
“It’s another point on the board. We’re still in pole position. We’ve opened up a bit more of a gap with St Johnstone and Dundee United but there’s still a lot to play for.”
Goodwin continued: “We only decided yesterday to play Jake and Jamie. Jake hasn’t trained, he went and got an injection on Monday and it settled down nicely and we took a gamble to be quite honest. I’ve got to give great credit to both players because they are only probably 75, 80-per-cent fit. But they realised the importance of the situation and I didn’t have to beg them to play.
“They wanted to go and make their own bit of history by being part of the first St Mirren team to make the top six since the Premiership began.
“I t ’s a g re at credit to them for p l ay i n g t h rough the pain barrier. It’s fantastic we’ve got big characters like that.”
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