Dougie Imrie eyes first-team recall after helping St Mirren end losing streak

St Mirren 3 - 1 Dundee

Scorers: St Mirren: Thompson (31, 72), Imrie (87); Dundee: Conroy (pen 64)

Referee: W Collum

Attendance: 4,825

The midfielder came off the bench to put the gloss on Saturday’s 3-1 win over Dundee in the Clydesdale Bank Premier League, having also been named among the substitutes for last week’s defeat at Hearts.

Imrie – who joined Saints from Hamilton in January – admits he was frustrated at falling down the pecking order but is now eyeing a starting slot at Ross County in midweek. He said: “It was nice to get a goal. It’s been a while coming. You’re always disappointed not to start but the manager picks a team that he thinks will win the game.

“You’ve just got to get on with it. We are in it together and I was just delighted to come on and get the goal. It gives  him something to think about now for Tuesday night at Ross County.”

Steven Thompson grabbed a double – either side of a Ryan Conroy penalty for Dundee before Imrie opened his goal-scoring account for Saints late on.

The victory in Paisley halted a run of six straight SPL defeats for the Buddies, who headed into the match just a single point above bottom side Dundee. Imrie said: “The fans are obviously going to be tense after six games in a row without picking up any points and lingering at the bottom of the table. My own opinion is that I think it’s a false position but you’ve got to win games and we hadn’t been doing that. We had played well in some of the games and just hadn’t got the breaks.

“This game was hard but we dug in and got the second goal and the third killed the game.

“We were delighted to get the three points and, hopefully, we can move up the table now.”

Imrie believes that Saints now have the confidence to take at least a point from the visit to Dingwall on Tuesday.

He added: “It was good to get the win and it ends that losing streak.

“We don’t want to be in that position again, so hopefully we can go on a run now.

“It will be difficult at Ross County. They are a good team and they’ve done well this season.

“But we’ve got players that are as good as theirs and, if we go up there and apply ourselves the way we did against Dundee, I’m sure we can get something from the game. It would be nice to get the three points.”

Dundee, who had Colin Nish sent off when the match was still goalless, may have returned to Tayside empty-handed, but manager Barry Smith believes there were some positives.

He said: “There was a lot there that was pleasing and a lot for me to build on and look forward to working on. We’ve still got a long way to go but we have come a long way.”