Stephen Mallan believes that Saints have to kick on and use the momentum following last night's 3-2 win over Queen of the South at Palmerston Park as they look to start climbing up the Ladbrokes Championship.
The midfielder scored a 93rd minute winner to spark scenes of jubilation in the away end as the Saints got their long awaited first league win of the season on the board.
Speaking to stmirren.com about the moment he put the Buddies 3-2 ahead in the dying moments of the match, he said: "The first thing that came to my head was just to shoot.
I never had many chances during the game to get a good shot on goal. The manager and the boys kept telling me to shoot because of the ability I have. I just wanted to hit the target and thankfully it went into the bottom corner and it was just brilliant. Hopefully we can kick on now and take it in to the next game.
When we got that equaliser I thought with the way we were playing that we could get that win and thankfully with the last kick of the ball I got that goal. It’s been a long time coming. I’ve been waiting on a goal in the league for a long time now, trying to live up to the hype from last season and it’s one of the most important with the way it came about. It was the best feeling in the world."
While Mallan was clearly delighted to score the winner and he also took the time to praise the fans and said that it meant so much to give back to those who turn out week-in, week-out to support the team.
It’s something you want to do as a player," he said. "You want to give the fans a reward for all the travelling they do and all the money they spend on the club. It’s good to give them something to take home and celebrate and it’s something I’ll never forget."
The second half was a lively affair, with both teams having opportunities to win. Scott Gallacher and his Queens counterpart Lee Robinson were forced into tremendous saves from Stephen Dobbie and Gary MacKenzie respectively as both looked to grab a winner.
It could have gone either way," Mallan continued. "I think at the end Queens were just trying to sit in and maybe get a point, but the way things are for St Mirren you have to try to play in a different gear. No matter if it’s 2-2 or we’re 2-1 down we have to keep going and the boys showed the dig that we’ve got.
"We came in at half-time 2-1 down and gave away two poor goals and got a bit of a rollocking off the manager and rightly so.
"I think in the second half we showed what we can do. We played to the last kick of the ball and today was one of the days that it paid off and we have to take that into the league even more."
While the 20 year-old realises the significance of the win, he reiterated that the team has to build upon this result as they look to haul themselves from the foot of the table.
It’s massive," he said. "We were the only club in the UK without a win which is a poor stat to have. But thankfully we’ve got that win. I’d say over the last month or two there has been a lot of luck against us but it was on our side and we need to keep that momentum up.
"We can’t rest on our laurels, it’s just one win.
"We are six points off second bottom so we need to keep going and keep pushing. We’re just looking to get as many wins as possible to start climbing up the league because we’re in a position that we shouldn’t be with the squad we’ve got. We can keep saying that and we say it every week but it’s up to us to do something about it."
