Marcus Fraser urges St Mirren to kick on from Premier Sports Cup success

Marcus Fraser insists St Mirren have to build on their thrilling 3-1 Premier Sports Cup final win over Celtic.

The 31-year-old defender, who started his career at Parkhead, opened the scoring with a header in the second minute at Hampden Park on Sunday, only for Reo Hatate to level midway through the first half.

However, against the odds, a brace from striker Jonah Ayunga took the trophy back to Paisley for the first time since 2013 as boss Stephen Robinson added silverware to three successive top-six finishes in the William Hill Premiership.

Stand-in skipper Fraser, who won a League Cup medal with Ross County in 2016, says the Buddies now need to address their league form, with the team sitting in ninth place.

Winners: Marcus Fraser hopes the cup joy can be a turning point for St Mirren. SNS Group

He said: “Of course, the last few weeks we know we could have maybe done better.

“Last week, I guess Dundee United (their first win in five games), we knew it was important, but then that’s got to build momentum for the club.

“Of course, everyone is going to be feeling good about ourselves.

“We’re just off the back of winning a cup, so we probably need to really take this on.

“Enjoy the moment, but then next week, you probably need to get in that league campaign and kind of hopefully push up that table.

“We speak about getting top six, it’s been brilliant, we’re getting into Europe, but you don’t really get anything at the end of it.

“It’s good performances and it’s consistency, but Sunday, off the back of a good performance, it was brilliant to get our hands on the trophy, something to lift, something to show everyone, and obviously show how good we’ve been over that year.

“This was probably the next step that this team had to take and thankfully we didn’t freeze in the moment.

“We grabbed it with both hands and we took the opportunity, which was brilliant.”

Golden moment: St Mirren's Marcus Fraser (R) scored in the second minute to put his side ahead against Celtic. — Golden moment: St Mirren’s Marcus Fraser (R) scored in the second minute to put his side ahead against Celtic. SNS Group

Fraser described his goal as “the best moment of his career” and he paid tribute to Robinson, who won against Celtic in a major final at the third time of asking after two unsuccessful attempts with Motherwell.

He said: “Incredible. When he first came in, I think it was a wee bit of a ropey start.

“No one was quite sure about where he was going to go, but since then the club’s moved forward, improved the training ground, improved the stadium and the fans had bought into it as well.

“You can see that the fans love the manager, what he’s done over the last few seasons.

“It’s basic what he does. He just gets his information across to his players and we go out and do it on the pitch, but what he does on the training ground every day doesn’t go unnoticed.

“We know how hard he and all the rest of the coaching staff work to get our performances and you can see that by how well-organised we are, but then also how good we are when we’ve got the ball as well.”