St Mirren players will go down as 'legends' after staying up, says boss

St Mirren interim manager Craig McLeish believes his players will go down as “legends” after ensuring their Premier Sports Cup triumph was not followed by relegation in the same season.

Marcus Fraser volleyed the only goal of the William Hill Premiership play-off final second leg to give Saints a 2-1 aggregate victory over Partick Thistle and extend their eight-year stay in the top flight.

McLeish said: “I’m just delighted for the fans and the group of players.

“It’s been frustrating because I feel like we deserve more than we probably have had over the last few weeks in terms of our performances at times.

“Even throughout the season, VAR decisions going against us and things like that as well, the list of injuries is just incredible that we’ve had.

“I spoke to the players before about wanting to make sure that they went down as legends in this club’s history and they deserved that.

“After what they’ve achieved this season, we didn’t want that black mark against them.”

McLeish now hopes talks with chief operating officer Keith Lasley lead to him getting the job on a permanent basis after stepping up following the shock departure of Stephen Robinson and guiding the club to safety.

“I’ve just been in a really privileged position, delighted that Keith and the board gave me the opportunity to run with it,” he said.

“I stepped up at that moment and said to him, ‘trust me with it’. I’m glad he did.

“I’d have loved to have avoided this type of situation, but there’s been so many positives throughout my spell in charge and whatever happens now is up to the club.

“I’ve loved every minute of this. The club know my stance on it and me and Keith will have conversations over the next few days.”

Thistle lost out in the play-offs for a fifth year running, but manager Mark Wilson was proud of his players and the fans.

He said: “It’ll be a familiar feeling I think for some Thistle fans, but it was just something different about that with the fans and the connection again. It’s been an incredible season.

“It was just fine margins, a set-piece. I think we’ve dealt with set-pieces quite well against St Mirren over the course (of the tie), but we just switched off for a second and it’s cost us.

“I couldn’t be prouder to be part of such a good group of guys and players that they’re all in it together. You know, you can see that they’re really together.

“We gave it our all, unfortunately we just came up short.