McAusland: We’ll keep eye on Leigh

Griffiths took his tally for the campaign to nine when he netted two penalties in a 4-0 win at Motherwell last Friday night and McAusland knows all about Griffiths’ goalscoring prowess – the 22-year-old has hit doubles at St Mirren Park in each of the last two seasons.

McAusland said: “He is a  really good player, he takes his chances and works his socks off, so he is obviously somebody we need to keep an eye on.

“He has done it here a couple of times and has been banging them in for Hibs week in, week out, so he is someone we need to take very seriously.

“I saw their goals from Friday night and it looked as if they played really well.

“They took their chances well and 4-0 is a great result at Fir Park.

“It’s something to think about but if we play well then hopefully we can come away with a result.”

St Mirren go to Easter Road in confident mood following their Scottish Communities League Cup quarter-final win over  Aberdeen and they are looking to carry that cup success into the league.

“We can still definitely  improve in the league, we are sitting second bottom and  have lost three on the trot,” McAusland continued.

“We need to try and get ourselves up there but the league is that tight, that if you get a couple of wins on the bounce it gets you back up the table.”