Murray: 'Let’s end on a high'

May 22 2009 by Paul Behan, Paisley Daily Express

MIDFIELD warrior Hugh Murray is urging his Buddies to achieve a double success tomorrow – by securing their SPL status and recording their first league win at St Mirren Park at the same time.

A point against Hamilton Accies will be enough to guarantee that Saints will be playing in the top flight of Scottish football again next season.

But ‘Shuggie’ is determined to make sure the Buddies cross the SPL finishing line in style by posting their first league win at their new stadium.

As an added incentive, St Mirren will manage to leapfrog the Accies in the table if they can secure victory tomorrow afternoon.

And they would be almost certain to end the campaign in ninth place – which would be their highest finish since returning to the SPL in 2006.

Gus MacPherson’s side are still waiting to celebrate their first SPL victory at St Mirren Park since the new stadium was opened by First Minister Alex Salmond way back in January.

But 30-year-old Murray is confident Saints can finally get that monkey off their back against the Accies.

He said: “Losing late goals has been the story of our season at home.

“But we’ve got a chance to put that home record right when we play Hamilton this weekend.

“We know it will be a difficult game for us as there are no easy games in this division.

“However, if we can turn in the same kind of performance that we managed at Falkirk last weekend, then I believe that we can get a win.”

Murray admits that the past month or so has been a “horrible” experience as Saints have slipped deeper and deeper into the relegation mire.

And, with the Buddies now so tantalisingly close to SPL safety, Murray knows they can’t afford to blow it all in the final game of the season.

“We’ll need to have 11 players pulling together against Hamilton and doing their bit for the cause,” he said.

“If four or five of us are not doing our bit, then we’ll struggle.

“Everyone knows we’ll be safe in the SPL if we win but we can also jump into ninth spot by beating Hamilton.

“So there are plenty of incentives there for us.

“To be honest, it has been horrible recently because we have struggled in the games against the likes of Inverness and Motherwell.

“I know it was hard for the supporters but the players were in the exact same position.

“The most pleasing thing is that, by beating Falkirk last Saturday, we’ve given ourselves a great chance of survival.”