MX23RW : Saturday, November 23 02:49:10| >> :120:71868:71868:

McAllister: Survival would be massive for St Mirren

McAllister: Survival would be massive for St Mirren
© Reuters
The winger has enjoyed a productive loan return to his boyhood club.

Kyle McAllister is determined to depart St Mirren as a top-flight club just over two years after leaving them bottom of the Ladbrokes Championship.

McAllister moved to Derby in January 2017 with the club staring relegation to Scotland's third tier in the face.

The wide player's transfer fee allowed Jack Ross to rebuild his squad and lead the club to an unlikely escape from the drop before winning promotion the following season.

McAllister returned to Paisley on loan in January with the club again bottom of the table but they have already avoided automatic relegation and can keep alive their hopes of averting a relegation play-off when they host Hamilton on Monday.

Only a win will do for the Buddies, who are four points behind Accies with two matches remaining of the Ladbrokes Premiership season.

And McAllister is out to do everything he can to ensure his hometown club stay up.

"It would be massive," the 20-year-old said. "I left here when the club were struggling in the Championship. A season later they have done unbelievably well to get back up.

"The positive for me is to try and keep them up, that's why I came here. I never came here just to play games and not care about results, because obviously St Mirren were a big part of me becoming a professional footballer.

"It would be unbelievable if we could stay up, it would be brilliant for me."

Saints have shown the fight needed to give themselves a chance, coming from behind to take at least a point in five of their last six matches.

"We are leaving it late when we know we can do it before," McAllister said. "But it's good we know we can push in the last five or 10 minutes without giving up.

"The players have been brilliant at it in the last few weeks and we just work to the death."

Manager Oran Kearney claims avoiding a play-off would be a bonus after Saints climbed from five points adrift in January to ensure second-bottom at worst two weeks before the end of the campaign.

McAllister said: "As soon as you pass the team below you, it's just a positive, and I don't think you can look back and say we've not done well enough.

"We just need to keep going the way we are going and hopefully get a result against Hamilton.

"There is no-one that folds, you don't see anyone slacking off. We have a lot of young players and they are proving themselves."

ga('create', 'UA-72310761-1', 'auto', {'name': 'pacontentapi'});
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'referrer', location.origin);
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension1', 'By Gavin McCafferty, Press Association Sport');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension2', 'caceea1f-954b-4f61-8477-50f995b94154');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension3', 'paservice:sport,paservice:sport:club-news,paservice:sport:football');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension6', 'story');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension7', 'composite');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension8', null);
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension9', 'sport:football');
ga('pacontentapi.send', 'pageview', { 'location': location.href, 'page': (location.pathname + location.search + location.hash), 'title': 'McAllister: Survival would be massive for St Mirren'});

ID:359040: cacheID:359040:1false2false3false:QQ:: from db desktop :LenBod:restore:4879:
Restore Data
Share this article now:
General view of St Mirren Park from 2009
Read Next:
Oran Kearney: 'St Mirren should be inspired by Liverpool and Spurs'
>
Read more about Kyle McAllister Football
rhs 2.0
Today's games header
Tables header RHS
TeamPWDLFAGDPTS
1Celtic1110103132831
2Aberdeen11101024101431
3RangersRangers11713168822
4Dundee UnitedDundee Utd125431813519
5Motherwell116141514119
6St Mirren134361722-515
7Dundee123361824-612
8Kilmarnock123361525-1012
9Ross County132651021-1112
10St Johnstone133191627-1110
11Hearts132381420-69
12Hibernian121561118-78


Sports Mole provides in-depth previews and predictions for every match from the biggest leagues and competitions in world football.
Argentina's Lionel Messi kisses the World Cup trophy after collecting the Golden Ball award on December 18, 2022Sign up for our FREE daily preview newsletter direct to your inbox!