St Mirren relegation ‘inevitable’, says Gary Teale

St Mirren manager, Gary Teale. Picture: SNS Group

Two goals apiece from Lee Erwin and John Sutton helped Motherwell to a 5-0 win over their relegation rivals, with Scott McDonald also on target.

When asked if he felt his team could avoid the drop, Teale said: “On the back of that, no.

“It was always going to be a difficult task and I’ve said that from the very beginning, and that we have to give our all, but we’re still making the same basic mistakes and it is basic schoolboy defending.

“We can’t clear our lines, we can’t stop crosses, we can’t get tight to somebody in the box and ultimately you pay for that.

“It’s been the story of our season, the silly goals that we lose and not really having a goal threat at the other end of the pitch, and ultimately that’s what’s putting us in the position that we are.

“It’s been an extremely disappointing season for everyone associated with the club, and we just need to make sure that we can look ourselves in the mirror and with six games to go, go and show something to the fans that we are hurting and that it does mean something to us if the club goes down.

“You’ve got to play for pride. If you’re talking about realism then with the amount of points we’ve picked up so far in the season, to then say you’re going to go and pick up six wins is not realistic.

“So you are playing for pride, while it’s still mathematically possible that you can do something you’ve got to try and believe in it but you’ve got to be a realist at the end of the day as well.

“Mathematically it’s not [impossible to stay up] so I wouldn’t concede, I’d never concede and I’ll stand up and take the stick and the criticism. I’ll still be fighting, still trying to make the boys win the six games that we’ve got remaining and if we do go down at least we’ll have gone down with a fight.

“It’s hugely disappointing for everyone associated with the club and most importantly the fans.

“We need to keep fighting and believe that in the six games remaining we can get as many points as we can.”

In stark contrast, Motherwell manager Ian Baraclough was understandably buoyant after his side’s third win in a row, and he is now setting his sights on the teams above them in the table.

“It was important we got the win to take us 10 points clear, it makes it very difficult hopefully for them to catch us,” Baraclough said.

“Our eyes are up above us and we’ll try to drag one or two closer to us.

“All eyes are on ourselves and Ross County now who are winning, so maybe the teams above should be looking over their shoulder.

“The lads haven’t had a day off, we’re fully concentrated, we know what’s required, and everybody is going in the right direction.”