Matt Smith previews St Mirren clash

Matt Smith has given an insight into the positive mindset inside the St Johnstone dressing room.

The club head to St Mirren this weekend with the aim of bouncing back to winning ways after defeats to Hearts, Dundee and Rangers in our previous three matches.

Craig Levein’s side have the chance to climb the Premiership table on Saturday and Smith has assured that confidence is high amongst the Perth squad.

“It was a frustrating game (against Rangers),” said the midfielder. “We knew the threats that they had and I thought first half particularly we dealt with that quite well until their goal really.

“It is always difficult games against Rangers or Celtic so we can’t dwell on it too much and we now have to look to our next game. It’s a big one and we can focus on that.

“The margins are always tight, that is just football. We spoke about mindset after the game that we have to remain positive because we have a few big games coming up now.

“We don’t want to dwell on the Rangers game too much, obviously it is frustrating to lose the game, but the message is to remain positive as big games are coming up. We need to keep fighting.”

Smith has enjoyed a prolonged spell in the Saints starting XI under manager Levein and he has been a key performer over the course of the season so far.

The Welshman bagged his first goal for the club against Dundee and he is now looking to continue his form with a strong finish to the campaign.

He continued: “It has been really good. I needed a bit of time at the start of the season to get back into the flow of playing games again.

“I just want to stay in the team and impact games as much as I can. I’m looking forward to the rest of the season.”

On St Mirren this weekend, Smith added: “It is a difficult place to go. They started the season very well. I thought we were good against them at McDiarmid.

“Going to their place is difficult, we struggled there last time obviously. We want to right that wrong.

“They are an organised outfit with some good players who work well as a team, but we have to back ourselves to go there and get three points.”