St Mirren keeper Jak Alnwick is targeting a five star post-split performance to banish the Buddies end of season blues.
After losing out in the battle of the Saints to finish in the top six, Jim Goodwin ’s side have been forced to switch their attention to finishing the best of the rest by clinching seventh spot.
Goalkeeper Alnwick admits Hamilton ’s dramatic late equaliser “hurt” after putting in so much effort over the course of the club’s entire campaign.
But he insists he’s still proud of his teammates’ endeavour, backing them to bounce back in the Scottish Cup this weekend and then in their remaining Premiership fixtures.
Speaking exclusively to Express Sport, he said: “I’ve been in dressings rooms before after a blow like that and it’s never a good place to be.
“It was a different kind of low than after the League Cup semi-final, because of how close we’d come and the way in which we missed out with St Johnstone scoring late on.
“It hurt after the amount of hard work and effort we’d put in.
“The mood was low, but with the characters we’ve got in the dressing room we don’t allow guys to wallow too much.
“At the end of the day I’d rather be disappointed at just missing sixth than happy to be finishing in ninth or tenth and just surviving.
“That’s not us anymore.
“I’m so proud of the lads. They gave it everything they had and not one player in our dressing room has not given their all this year.
“With everything that’s gone on this season, even before it started, it would have been easy for the club to just say ‘let’s build a squad just to avoid relegation’.
“But we set our sights higher and we’ve been disappointed not to make the top six. At least we aimed high and came close.
“Now we want to go and finish seventh, for sure. We want to win all five games we’ve got left in the league and try to have a good cup run too. We want to finish strongly.”
Alnwick revealed he understands supporters disappointment at missing out on a historic top half finish, with expectations raised by chief executive Tony Fitzpatrick and manager Goodwin who repeatedly stated finishing in the top six was the club’s main target.
The former Newcastle and Rangers goalie is adamant he’d rather aim higher and miss out than be content with treading water in the top flight.
He said: “For the club and for the fans, we always give our all.
“It was tough for everyone to take when we missed out.
“We went through a really poor run this season and also a really incredible one. Football is full of ups and downs like that.
“But we’re not sitting here having been relegated or even fighting to stay up. So there’s positives to take from that.
“I’d take going for the top six every season and just getting pipped over just staying up and finishing in tenth or eleventh.
“There’s been a change in mentality in the whole club. The fans are majorly disappointed to miss out on the top six, but that shows how high the bar has been raised.
“Now we’ve just got to be professional and get back down to business. We’ll put the hard work in and there are people playing for positions next season, for new contracts. There’s still a lot to play for.”
