Gary Teale vows to stay and battle to regain his first-team place

Published on 27/10/2012 01:07

Gary Teale admits to feeling frustrated by his lack of first-team action with St Mirren recently, but has vowed to remain at the Paisley club and fight for his place.

The winger has not started since last month’s defeat by Kilmarnock and did not feature at all in the last two outings – defeats by St Johnstone and Celtic. The 34-year-old says his omission is even harder to take when the side are not producing the results and he has not been given an opportunity to have an impact on those matches.

Teale said: “I thought at the start of the season, when I was in the side, that we were doing well enough. When you’re sitting on the sidelines and the performances haven’t been what they had been before, and you’re not being utilised and you feel like you can make an impact, it is disappointing.

“But there’s nothing you can do. You just have to get on with it and hope the manager changes it around again and you’re back in.

“I’ve never been one to bang on the door and say ‘why am I not playing?’ I’m the type of character who just gets on with things. It is frustrating. You work all week and all you want to do is play football on a Saturday.”

Next up for St Mirren is the visit of Dundee United, who arrive with Rudi Skacel in their ranks, after the free agent signed a short term deal until the end of January.

Sean Dillon also signed a two-year extension this week as he prepares to mark the sixth anniversary of his arrival from Shelbourne in January. The defender has seen numerous team-mates move on in recent years but sees no reason to change clubs.

“Obviously we lose players every year,” the Irishman said. “Some go on to better things and unfortunately some don’t. While it’s great for lads going on to a bigger club and earning more money, the flip side is players get released and don’t go up the way. I’m delighted to still be here and I enjoy my football and my life here.”

United stopped a run of four SPL games without scoring when they drew 1-1 with Aberdeen last Saturday. Their performance levels also returned after two defeats by Hearts and Inverness that saw them lose a total of seven goals.

The 4-0 reverse against Caley Thistle sparked a frank team meeting that some in the squad believe can set them on a similar course to last season, when they recovered from a slow start to finish fourth.

But Dillon was loath to say they had turned the corner because of one draw. “The potential is there,” 29-year-old said. “For whatever reason things haven’t been happening over the last few weeks. The Aberdeen game was nice to get back to putting on a good performance. We need to get sorted sooner rather than later and the quicker we kick on and start getting results the better.”