Forget this, Jambos are our priority
Jim Goodwin admitted he had an eye on the midweek relegation crunch with Hearts when he left Ilkay Durmus and Alex Jakubiak out of his starting line-up at Parkhead.
To be fair, it’s unlikely they would have made much difference against the freescoring champions.
A Leigh Griffiths hat-trick, an Odsonne Edouard strike and Callum McGregor’s spotkick put Saints to the sword.
But Saints boss Goodwin refused to be downbeat after his side slumped to second bottom spot, because his priority is the dog-fight with the Jambos in three days.
He admitted: “There was an element of picking a team with a view to Wednesday. We set up in a manner to give us the best chance of picking up something from the game, but I’d be lying if I said Wednesday night wasn’t more important.
“We go in to every game trying to win it but we knew how difficult it would be here.
“It’s quite scary really, they probably never got out of second gear and still put five past us. We have to take it on the chin but we can’t allow it to hurt us too much.”
Saints now face bottom side Hearts and Goodwin added: “We have to keep the gap between ourselves and Hearts at the end of the game.
“Every game is massive now but I believe in the squad and we’re good enough to pull ourselves out of it.”