'Lesser teams would have crumbled': Goodwin praises St Mirren character

St Mirren manager Jim Goodwin hailed his side’s character after they held off a strong second-half challenge from Ross County to win 3-2 in Dingwall.

Eammon Brophy and Marcus Fraser put the Buddies two up and Scott Tanser quickly restored the two-goal advantage before the break after Blair Spittal had netted for the hosts.

Alex Iacovitti’s 66th-minute strike set up a grandstand finish and Saints held firm to stretch their unbeaten run to six matches.

“We’re over the moon with the end result,” Goodwin said. “We were excellent in spells and scored some very good goals, the first two in particular were excellent.

“I thought our energy levels in the first 45 minutes were excellent. We didn’t allow Ross County to get any real foothold.

“Whether it was tiredness or not, we stopped doing that in the second half.

“Credit to Malky (Mackay) and his players, I knew they would throw everything at us.

“At 3-2, with 25 minutes to go, it gives the whole place a lift. That’s where I’m really pleased with the players’ effort and commitment.

“Again it shows the strength and character within the group, which I talk about regularly.

“Lesser teams would have crumbled and possibly come away with a draw or even defeat.

“Three points away from home in this league is hard to come by.”

County are still looking for their first win of the cinch Premiership season and Mackay admitted they would need to defend better to get the elusive three points.

“We can’t give away poor goals like that,” he said. “For the first one, Jack Baldwin slipped and allowed Brophy in and it’s a good finish.

“At the second one, Harry Clarke didn’t pick up his man and Marcus Fraser scored an easy header at the far post.

“The third one, on any other day, a player 250 games deep just heads the ball, and Jack left it. It’s not as if there was a shout or anything like that.

“To lose a goal like that is disappointing, especially when we got back into the game.

“We hit the bar, the goalkeeper made a great save and we then scored the free-kick. To go in at 2-1 down would have been different.”