Teale takes pragmatic view

Pic: Jeff Holmes

St Mirren boss Gary Teale insists he was only being "realistic'' when he admitted the Buddies looked almost certain to be relegated.

Teale appeared to throw in the towel after Tuesday's 5-0 hammering at Motherwell when he agreed it looked "inevitable'' Saints would be playing in the Scottish Championship next season.

They now trail Ian Baraclough's men by 10 points at the bottom of the Scottish Premiership table.

But with 18 points left to play for, Teale was criticised by some fans as being defeatist following his honest assessment of the drastic situation facing the Paisley club.

However, while the former Scotland winger is determined his side will fight on - starting with Monday night's home clash with Ross County - he insists he was right to call the situation as he saw it.

Teale said: "The Motherwell defeat was hard to take but mathematically, we are still in it. It's not as if there has been an acceptance of relegation.

"We are still in there fighting and if we can get a result against Ross County on Monday night then it might put some nerves back on Motherwell and County, because we will still have 15 points to play for after the split.

"But let's be realists - with the points tally we have, it's going to be a hell of an ask. But we will certainly fight to get as many points as we can.''

He added: "When I said what I did after the Motherwell game I was just being realistic.

"If anybody wants to spin it any other way that is entirely up to them.

"I don't regret what I said because I was just being realistic. I'm always positive about things.

"For example, I saw some people saying we set up the team 4-1-4-1 the other night and told them to sit in. Actually I set them up as a 4-3-3.

"We had James Dayton and Kieran Sadlier high and wide with Yoann Arquin through the middle. But goals change games and we ended up sitting a bit further back after losing the early goal.

"But I'm convinced the boys are still up for the fight. The boys need to take some personal responsibility.

"However, we do need to be realistic about it. You don't want to look silly and say we're going to pick up 18 points between now and the end of the season.

"But if we do go down, we will go down fighting.''