Watching rerun of loss will help to avoid repeat

Sports writer

Thursday 25 October 2012

Losing heavily to Celtic has caused a bout of introspection at St Mirren.

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Richard Wilson

The first-half display last Saturday was so bereft that the game was essentially surrendered by the interval, and there was little redemption in being less abject in the second-half. The response has been to pore over the cause of the emphatic 5-0 defeat.

Performances are reviewed as a matter of routine, but this would have felt like a tribulation. The striving for a sophisticated style of play would have seemed incidental when so many fundamental values were missing. Celtic's assurance was able to deliver an all-encompassing dominance."We can't put our finger [on what went wrong], when Celtic got that first goal it was as if we just accepted defeat and before we knew it, it was half time and we were 4-0 down," said Kenny McLean, the St Mirren midfielder. "You can't take anything away from Celtic, they were brilliant, but we didn't turn up at all."We'll go over it and try to see what could have been prevented. We go through games, and it won't be too good watching it back, but it needs to be done because we need to see where it went wrong and stop it happening again. It was embarrassing, and being on TV made it worse."There is an immediate opportunity to atone, since Dundee United visit St Mirren Park on Saturday. Peter Houston's side will be no pushovers, but the chance to make amends for the Celtic display in front of the fans who had to endure it will be a powerful motivation.Danny Lennon will have pored over the tactical shortcomings, and basic errors will be addressed. In truth, though, it is the attitude of the St Mirren players that will be crucial. There is little chance of recovering from the setback if it continues to prey on their minds to such an extent that individuals are inhibited. A balance must be struck in the response."We need to bounce back from that and give our fans something to cheer about," said McLean. "It's the most I've been beaten by, so it's the worst [result in his career], and being in front of our own fans meant it wasn't great. We hope the fans turn up in numbers. We let them down badly and, hopefully, we'll give them something to cheer about."

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Watching rerun of loss will help to avoid repeat

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