St Mirren boss Jim Goodwin says that his players must improve their fitness after a draw with Morton in the League Cup
The Renfrewshire Derby ended 1-1 after a game of two halves. The Buddies had dominated in the first 45, leading through Jon Obika, before Ross MacIver equalised in a Ton-dominated second half.
Goodwin’s side eventually won the penalty shootout 6-5 to win the bonus point, St Mirren now needing victory on Saturday away to Queen’s Park to guarantee League Cup progression.
With this only their second game following almost a month in cold storage due to Covid problems, Goodwin says the fitness of his players has to get better.
“We had a really difficult game here on Friday night against Dundee United and the lads have only had half a dozen sessions in the past four weeks,” said Goodwin. “Fitness levels aren’t anywhere near where they need to be.
“We tried to make changes and freshen things up but unfortunately we had lost our rhythm at that point and were kind of hanging on at times. Listen, take nothing away from Morton, they were the better team second half.
“But I am glad I am standing here on the right end of the penalty shoot-out, sitting on seven points, and we know what we have to do on Saturday, go there and win the game and if we do that we will go through.
“I thought the first half was excellent, we dominated possession like I would have expected and did everything we spoke about in terms of getting the ball wide and getting balls in the box.
“We had two or three good chances to add to the goal we scored. But Morton came out all guns blazing in the second half. They didn’t allow us time on the ball and we weren’t able to get our heads up and pick out passes.
“And without making too many excuses, I think you saw the fatigue setting in.”