On Saturday afternoon St Mirren went down 1-0 against Hamilton Academical - a defeat that manager Gus MacPherson feels had more than a hint of being self-inflicted.

He said, "We were very slow to get started in the game but to be fair you must give credit to Hamilton as they really flew out of the traps and put us on the back foot.

"We had to defend quite a bit in the first 20 minutes as we cleared an effort off the line and another chance came off our bar but thereafter we went on to have arguably the best chance of the first half which fell to Andy Dorman.

"In the second half I couldn't see us scoring a goal or even conceding one as for long periods of that half there seemed to be not very much happening.

"Then in injury-time we allowed a cross to come into our penalty-area then the Hamilton player gets to the ball unchallenged to get the goal."

Midfielder, Andy Dorman has come in for some criticism in recent games for missed goal scoring opportunities; Gus believes that it should be a collective responsibility.

He said, "In the last 5 or 6 games Andy has probably had more chances than he had previously when we played 4-4-2 when he played in the wider area. Last Saturday at Hamilton we changed it slightly by trying to get Andy into the middle of the park to make it a wee bit harder for Hamilton to man-mark him, which they tend to do.

"As it was Andy had a good chance but the thing at the moment is that we are creating our chances but not capitalising on them, that can be the difference at this level of football.

"Some teams maybe only get a couple of chances but they take them - we are creating more than a couple in most games but we aren't putting them away. That has got to change soon as we have got to get wins on the board."

The other worry this season has been the loss of goals at pivotal times in games, something the Saints gaffer knows must be remedied sooner, rather than later.

He said, "It goes without saying that you are never happy when you lose a goal. We have talked about losing goals at these pivotal times in games, we have lost in the region of 9 goals in the final 10 minutes of games in the league.

"You can be assured that it is something that we are trying to improve on and for me the best way for that to happen is to stop balls coming into our penalty-area.

"It seems that often after working so hard in a game we show a wee moment of slackness, this is something that we have got to learn to sort out quickly because if we don't it could be too late."

Despite the recent league form Gus has no doubts that his side will be well up and ready for the challenge of this Sunday's Co-operative Insurance Cup final against Rangers.

He said, "There has been disappointment and frustration with the way things have been going for us in the league. I don't think anyone can question the commitment and effort from the players so it is up to me and the other coaches to make sure that the players are up for it in the next game but to be fair that shouldn't be too hard.

"It is a big game on Sunday but it is also a special game - they don't come along too often so we all know that and I'm sure everybody will be more than up for it come the time."

The preparation for the cup final started today and Gus believes that sticking to more or less the usual routine is the way to go.

He explained, "I don't think we'll stray too far from our usual preparation for a game over the course of this week. At the end of the day, players are creatures of habit, that being said they aren't daft as they know they are going into a cup final on Sunday so that is where their focus will be over the course of this week.

"The players are under no illusions on just how difficult a task sits ahead of them but there is a challenge there to be met and I'm sure every single player wearing a St Mirren jersey will be looking forward to it."

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