ST MIRREN manager Jim Goodwin is hoping that an injury crisis doesn’t derail his side’s season as Jamie McGrath became the latest of his key men to pick up a knock in the defeat to Celtic.

McGrath was forced off early in the game after landing awkwardly on his shoulder, and he now joins the likes of Kristian Dennis and Eamonn Brophy on the treatment table.

In the short term, Goodwin believes the loss of McGrath contributed to his team losing the opening goal of their 4-0 defeat to Celtic last night, but he is also worried about the long-term impact of being without some of his star men.

“We’re going through a bit of a hard time at the moment in terms of injuries,” Goodwin said.

“Dennis done his Achilles a couple of weeks ago, Brophy looks like he’s got quite a serious foot injury [on Tuesday] and McGrath looks like he’s now dislocated his shoulder.

“Hopefully it’s not too serious, we’ll get him scanned tomorrow, but you can’t go without your big players.

“There was a bit of disruption there at the time [of Celtic’s first goal]. We made the change just in time before the goal but unfortunately we didn’t do enough.

“It was a fantastic goal for Celtic.”

Goodwin’s frustration didn’t end there, as he lamented a poor second-half showing from his team that allowed Celtic to move out of sight.

“If we lose the game 1-0, it’s probably not so bad,” he said. “It’s really disappointing.

“We wanted to give a good account of ourselves. We’ve been getting a lot of praise of late and we beat Celtic 10 days ago, and we wanted the young lads to showcase their talents, and show everybody out there watching what good players they were.

“We did that in the first half in spells, but in the second half we just weren’t at it.”