St Mirren 0

Dunfermline 0

THE FIRST of April is traditionally a day for hoaxes and pranks but Gary MacKenzie has pin-pointed it as the date St Mirren effectively ease their relegation fears.

Saturday’s draw with Dunfermline has reduced the gap with second-bottom Ayr United to four points and MacKenzie is hoping that when Ian McCall brings his side to Paisley at the beginning of next month it will be momentous.

The centre-back feels the pressure at the bottom has now swung on to the Somerset Park side, but he recognises that Saints still have major work to do if they are to achieve their survival aim.

He said: “The closer we get to Ayr United and even Raith Rovers then the pressure starts to switch on to them.

“They are looking over their shoulders and the first thing they would have done on Saturday was look for our result.

“We’ve dealt with pressure now for months. Everyone was writing us off but now the pressure is swinging, so we’ll see how they deal with it.

“We still have nine games to go so nothing has been decided yet.

“We just need to continue closing the gap so that when we get games at home against the teams round about us we can go above them.

“The positives are we are a point closer to the team above us and it’s a clean sheet.

“Everybody is giving everything. We are settled and we are a much better team than we were a few months ago.

“The pressure is still there but I think we have been dealing with it.

“I think the fans can see that we are trying everything to stay up and they have been brilliant.

“But they need to stay with us every week between now and the end of the season.

“You can’t under-value the importance of support. It gives you that extra buzz towards the end of games when you are maybe feeling tired.

“We’ll need that again on Wednesday night against Dundee United.”

A draw was fair as both sides can point to big chances. Lewis Morgan and Rory Loy missed very good opportunities for Saints while Billy O’Brien made a fantastic save from Michael Paton and The Pars were denied a clear penalty.

Gary Irvine brought down Paul McMullan in 32 minutes when the little winger was about to pull the trigger but ref Steven Finnie didn’t give it – and then confused the issue by offering different explanations.

McMullan said: “I’m four yards out, goal-side of the man so there is no other reason to go down, but it was one of these days when we didn’t get much,

“The referee gave different explanations why he didn’t give the penalty.

“He told one of our players he thought I jumped into the man and he told one of their players he didn’t think there was enough contact so I don’t know what he’s thinking.

“I think he’s just trying to make excuses.

“We feel we should have won the game because we had the better chances but a point away from home is not disastrous.”

McMullan, who was on loan with Saints last season, took some flak from the home fans but he hopes St Mirren stay up.

He added: “I was getting a wee bit of stick from the fans but that’s part and parcel of football.

“I really enjoyed my time at St Mirren. It’s a really good club and, although it didn’t work out for me, I hope they can pick up the points they need to stay in the league.”