JACK Ross insists St Mirren will get off the bottom of the Ladbrokes Championship – if everyone at the club retains belief. The Paisley club are nine points adrift of ninth-placed Dunfermline after their 3-1 defeat at Falkirk on Saturday.
Saints led at half-time through Lewis Morgan’s 17th-minute strike but paid the price for Jack Baird’s red card after the defender threw a punch at veteran Falkirk striker Lee Miller in the 38th minute.
Second-half goals from Miller, Bob McHugh and Myles Hippolyte ensured St Mirren are still looking for their first league win of the season, 14 matches in.
Ross, who was appointed manager at the start of October after Alex Rae’s departure, said: “I don’t think you can question the commitment of the players and the reaction of the fans at the end of the game shows me that.
“I’ve been a player here and I know the supporters will tell you what they think of the performance. They applauded the players because they knew they gave their lot to try to get something out the game.
“They need to maintain that faith, the players and the supporters, for us to get out of this situation. You need stomach for this, you need character, and the ones who played showed that. It’s not going to waver, my belief in my own ability to do it, and my belief in them as a group.
“The only time my belief in them will diminish is if they don’t work as hard as we do in training and don’t work as hard as they did on the pitch, and don’t show that they believe in their own abilities.
“If they continue to do that I genuinely believe things will turn for us. There is plenty to show that we will turn this around.”
Falkirk moved six points behind Hibernian and Dundee United and above Morton, who beat Beith 6-0 in the William Hill Scottish Cup, while St Mirren could have fallen further behind had Dunfermline midfielder Kallum Higginbotham not had two late penalties saved minutes apart by Ayr goalkeeper Greg Fleming.
The Fife side had to settle for a 1-1 draw at Somerset Park after Nicky Clark’s opener on the half-hour was cancelled out by Alan Forrest’s 50th-minute penalty. The visitors were reduced to 10 men when Lewis Martin picked up a second yellow card in conceding the spot-kick.
Ryan Stevenson scored from 25 yards as Dumbarton won 2-1 at Palmerston to inflict a sixth consecutive league defeat on Queen of the South, who host St Mirren tomorrow night.
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