Stephen Mallan says he is excited to get to work with Jack Ross following the new manager's first training session yesterday morning. The midfielder was speaking to stmirren.com at the St Mirren Training Complex in Ralston following the session and admitted it was a positive first day under the new boss.
"It was good," he said. "There were a lot of new drills that we've just been shown and it was a lot more fun. When you get shown new stuff it's fun, but there's also a seriousness to it. I'm looking forward to the next few weeks just to see what he brings to us and how he wants us to play football.
"Before training he introduced himself and [told us] what he wants to do over the next few weeks. His main aim is promotion and that's what we want. As long as we're in that top four and pushing to get St Mirren back up to the Premiership."
Ross has come into St Mirren this week on the back of an excellent 2-1 win over Hibernian at Easter Road in the IRN-BRU Cup on Saturday.
That win has set up a quarter final clash with Ayr United at the Paisley 2021 Stadium in November and Mallan hopes the Saints can do one better than last year and make it to the final of the competition this season.
He said: "There are still a lot of good teams in the draw and there was nobody we really wanted; it was always going to be a hard game when you're in the quarters. Last year we got Rangers in the semi-final at Ibrox - that was a tough game. Hopefully we can try and get a cup run and try to get St Mirren to the final."
Saints winning goal against Hibernian on Saturday came after high pressing from the St Mirren attack, with Lewis Morgan robbing the ball off Hibs captain David Gray before threading the ball through to Lawrence Shankland. Shankland then teed it off to David Clarkson who knocked it beyond goalkeeper Ofir Marciano to put St Mirren in front.
Mallan said: "Hibs had a lot of possession of the ball and we done them on the counter with our high pressure that Allan has tried to bed in to us. He didn't want us to sit off them; he wanted us, as a team, to press them if we could and the fresh legs of Clarky and Shanks helped us get the win.
"When you press teams they're always prone to making mistakes and that's what happened with the second goal. It was great for the boys and great for Allan to see the work he's put in the last few weeks paying off."
It was Mallan's 20th goal for the Saints that got St Mirren back into the game when he pinged a brilliant free kick beyond Marciano just before half time. The midfielder has previous at Easter Road after scoring another superb free kick in the capital in January of this year in a Ladbrokes Championship match. It was a moment that he was reminded of by teammate Morgan as he got himself in position to strike.
He said: "To be fair, Morgy said just before it: 'just do what you did last time' and thankfully it paid off and it was great to get a goal."
