Mclean joy at Saints success

St Mirren midfielder Kennymclean is delighted with the personal recognition he has had this season – now he wants to ensure his team’s improvement is shown in the league table.

Mclean is one of four candidates for tomorrow’s PFA Scotland young player of the year announcement andrecentlymadehis Scotland under-21 debut.

St Mirren have already secured their highest SPL finish after following up victory over Hibernian, when Mclean netted the winner, with an impressive victory over Kilmarnock on Wednesday to make sure they will not be in the bottom three.

The Rugby Park win left them a point behind Killie ahead of today’s visit of Inverness and Mclean is determined to push the Ayrshire side all the way for seventh place.

Mclean said:“my goal at the start of the season was just to get playing.

“I have done that and got the Scotland call-up which

“There’s no reason why we don’t deserve to be seventh”

has been a bonus and a young player of the year nomination.

“If you gave me that at the start of the season I would have taken both your hands off.

“If you’re nominated for something like that then you know you’re getting recognised.”

St Mirren’s improvement has been evident in Danny Lennon’s second season in charge and Mclean believes seventh spot would be a fitting reward. “The way we have played, there’s no reason why we don’t deserve to be in seventh place.

“We’ll be looking to win both games and, hopefully, that can give us seventh place.”

The 20-year-old added: “The last two games we have been excellent.

“We got the goalandkept hold of it unlike the (4-4) Dunfermline game.

“We’ll be looking to take the same kind of performance from Kilmarnock, especially in the firsthalf, to keep us in touch with Killie for seventh place.

“Inverness seem to be our bogy team, they are tough opponents.”