Craig McLeish keeps focus on long-term plan after St Mirren end losing run

St Mirren boss Craig McLeish insists he always maintained his calm during the team’s sticky spell before Saturday’s victory over Dundee.

The 2-1 win over the Taysiders ended a five-game losing run, lifting the Buddies to sixth place in the William Hill Premiership after ten fixtures.

Ahead of Wednesday’s visit of bottom side Hibernian, who have gone five games without a win with three successive defeats under new head coach Marink Reedijk, the 36-year-old spoke about negotiating his way through his side’s recent struggles.

“I hope I showed that (calmness) at least, but I was,” said McLeish, who revealed striker Jonah Ayunga will have a “tidy-up” operation on his knee which will delay his comeback.

“It’s easy to sit here and say that, but my job is to keep everyone kind of calm during it.

“The start of the season, when we’re winning games and doing well, it’s not getting carried away and keeping people’s feet on the ground, and then when it swings the other way, it’s my job to keep everyone even and just kind of keep things in perspective as well.

“There’s a long-term plan here that the club is fully invested in and there are going to be bumps along the way.

“But I also get that you don’t get the time to put the long-term plan in place if you’re not putting points on the board, so it’s finding the balance of it.

“But me being calm during it, to lead it, that’s what I have to do.”

McLeish is not overly concerning himself with the plight of Hibs.

He said: “We have been on that similar run where you’re losing games, but we knew we were still in a good place in terms of the spirit in our changing room.

“I’m sure Hibs are probably in the same situation.

“They’ve got a new manager, and they’ve got a lot of very good players, a lot of experience, and they’ll know how to dig themselves out of this situation.

“But not really focusing too much on them and their situation and more just still concentrating on what we’ll do.”

On Ayunga, out since April after he injured his anterior cruciate ligament against Livingston, McLeish said: “Jonah is is actually going to have to go in for another operation on Thursday.

“Something within his knee has not quite healed, so he needs to go on for a tidy-up which might add a couple of weeks on to his recovery, so he’s still looking into the New Year anyway.

“Paul Nsio missed the squad through illness. He’ll be back in around it (on Wednesday).”