Ryan Strain did not need to wait for Stephen Robinson’s analysis of St Mirren’s defeat by Motherwell to know that he and his team-mates had fallen well short of the standards they have set this season.
Wing-back Strain quickly pulled a goal back after Saints had fallen two behind in the opening 19 minutes at Fir Park but the visitors could not carve out many clear-cut chances to force an equaliser.
The 2-1 defeat meant the Buddies missed the chance to move into fourth place in the cinch Premiership with their game in hand.
Strain said: “It was a very disappointing night. We didn’t come out strong enough and from there we were chasing the game. We got back into it, but just weren’t good enough on the night.
“I’ve no idea why we didn’t start well. It was maybe just the mindset and it wasn’t good enough from us.
“We knew it was a great opportunity to go into fourth. That’s what we believed we could do. We went there to win and to come away with zero points is very disappointing.
“The manager definitely let us know it was unacceptable and we knew that ourselves.
“We’ve had high standards this year and been playing really well. To go to Fir Park and not get the three points we wanted, it shows the standards we set.
“To get no points is tough, but we’re still sixth. We’ve got a huge game on Saturday and we need to go into that and get three points.”
St Mirren host Ross County on Saturday and will bid to keep their top-six push on course.
“It’s massively important to bounce back quickly,” Australia international Strain said. “A win on Saturday could still take us to fourth. That’s where we wanted to get to against Motherwell, but now we’ve got to pick ourselves up and go again on Saturday.”
