Scottish round-up
LAWRENCE SHANKLAND has double-vision as he seeks to get St Mirren an unlikely play-off spot and wants parent club Aberdeen to claim the Premiership crown.
The Paisley side were the only team to win in the Championship on Saturday – edging Queen of the South 2-1 – and on-loan Shankland insists the team has not given up on a top-four place.
Raith Rovers are a distant 11 points clear but had to rely on a lastgasp Kyle Benedictus strike to spare them from defeat at bottom club Alloa.
Shankland believes there are still some twists and turns to come.
“We have not given up hope of appearing in the play- offs,” he stressed, “You never know as teams keep beating each other and we just need to concentrate on ourselves and see where we end up.”
It is a long shot but St Mirren have certainly become more resilient on their own patch since Alex Rae took over.
Steve Mallan put them ahead from the penalty spot after Shankland was fouled and, after Gary Oliver equalised, an own goal from Callum Tapping settled it.
“We showed a good response to get straight ahead so quickly after their equaliser,” Shankland pointed out.
“The home form has certainly improved as that is now four wins from five and away from home we have been doing well so if we can keep the home run going and build on these wins, then we should be doing okay.
“The manager has brought in a good organisation about us now and we play a relatively straightforward 4-4-2 system and it seems to work well for us and we all know the set-up that we have to play.”
Falkirk were heading for three points in the evening kick-off at Dumbarton after John Baird scored with a penalty but Garry Fleming equalised with an injury-time penalty.
It leaves Falkirk three points clear of third-placed Hibernian who have two games in hand and manager Peter Houston admitted to being frustrated with the result.
“When we went 1-0 up, we made wrong decisions. We tried to hold onto the ball rather than score another one.
Scoring another goal would have made all the difference,” he stated.
In League One, Faissal El Bakhtaoui scored two goals in a fiveminute spell in the second half as Dunfermline won 2-0 at Ayr United, keeping their 11-point lead at the top.
“It is another game gone, another step closer but we have been in the game long enough not to get complacent because that is when you start getting beaten,” said Pars’ manager Allan Johnston.
Peterhead kept up the pursuit with a handsome 4-1 win at Stenhousemuir, Shane Sutherland scoring twice.
Brechin City moved level with Forfar at the bottom after goals from Andy Jackson and Lewis Spence gave them a 2-0 win at Airdrieonians.
East Fife moved back to the top of League Two with a 4-2 win over Annan Athletic, Jamie Insall and Jonathan Page both scoring twice.