MIDFIELDER TARGETS PREMIERSHIP SAFETY BUDDIES ARE NOW IN OUR SIGHTS
Cammy MacPherson came off the bench at Dens Park to aid the St Johnstone survival push.
Now the 23-year-old midfielder has his sights set on piling the pressure on his former club St Mirren.
MacPherson was a second-half substitute on Saturday as Saints recovered to net a vital point against Dundee.
The 11th-placed Perth side remain five clear of their Tayside rivals and have also picked up slight ground on those operating directly above. Five points is now the gap to both the Buddies and Aberdeen, with the former visiting McDiarmid Park next weekend.
“We 100 per cent have got to believe,” a determined MacPherson said after the 1-1 draw in the City of Discovery.
“There’s big belief in the squad that we can go on a run through to the end of the season. We want to win every game.
“There will be pressure on both sides next week. We need to try and close the gap to them now.
“It’s a vital game and if we get the three points it drags them in, then we’ll see what happens.
“We’ve got some momentum going into the game and that is always important in football.
“St Mirren are on a losing streak but we know when it comes to Saturday it will be 11 versus 11.
“I’ve not watched any of their games but you obviously check the results because of where we are in the table.”
Saints trailed early doors and had struggled to find any sort of rhythm to their play.
But there was an improvement after the break and MacPherson believes they more than merited the point.
“It was probably a fair result in the end because we didn’t start very well,” he said. “I thought they played well first half. We had a bit of sustained pressure in the second half and we maybe could’ve nicked another goal.
“We knew we had to come out and change the game. The substitutions made a wee bit of a difference but we were already starting to put some pressure on.
“I just needed to come on and play my own game. That is what the gaffer says when he puts you on. He puts belief in you and you need to go out there and prove yourself.
“We’ll take the point and keep that gap in the table between the teams.
“If we lost that game it could really have given Dundee momentum. Keeping the gap at five points deflates them a little bit, but we know there is still a long way to go.”
MacPherson praised the impact of the 2000+ travelling support in helping haul Saints back into the game.
“Put the ball in the box and the big man is going to attack it,” he smiled of Rooney’s leveller.
“Luckily enough Melker Hallberg put the ball into a good area and Shaun attacked it well.
“Just before the goal we had put a bit of pressure on Dundee and it got the fans going. So the fans again played a massive part.”