THERE WAS concern for both St Mirren and Ireland after Jamie McGrath picked up an injury during St Mirren’s 2-1 loss to Rangers today.
The 25-year-old impressed in Ireland’s recent international window, and Stephen Kenny will be hoping to have the player available for upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Portugal and Luxembourg.
Having used all three substitutes, Saints played out the closing minutes with 10 men after McGrath was taken off on a stretcher with a hip problem.
Boss Jim Goodwin said: “We are not sure at the moment but Jamie wouldn’t go down and certainly wouldn’t come off on a stretcher if it wasn’t serious.
“He will go for a scan (on Monday) and we will say our prayers that hopefully, it is nothing too serious.
“Hindsight is a great thing and now we wish we would have taken him off immediately but we didn’t realise it was as serious as it was.”
Goodwin was unhappy with the two goals his side conceded, suggesting Irish defender Conor McCarthy and midfielder Alan Power could have done better for the goals.
He said: “Really disappointed not to have anything to show from what was a decent performance.
“We were comfortable and the disappointing thing for me was the manner of the goals we conceded.
“When you are playing against Rangers or Celtic, if they cut you open and play some fantastic free-flowing football you hold your hands up and say it was a good goal.
“But it was two really poor goals from our point of view. The penalty, when Alan (Power) watches it back he will agree he doesn’t need to try to nick the ball, if he just jockeys (Ianis) Hagi he is probably not going to do a great deal with it.
“You stick a leg out and unfortunately players are going to go over and in the modern day it is penalty.
“The second goal is a real killer blow.
“Five minutes before half-time, we need to manage the game better. We have to get to half-time level pegging and we need to defend that cross better, it is as simple as that.
“Conor McCarthy gets himself into a good area at the near post and he needs to clear it — as simple as that. Morelos is never going to miss that two yards out.”
Steven Gerrard paid tribute to Alfredo Morelos after the Rangers striker scored his 100th goal in the victory.
The Colombia striker, signed from HJK Helsinki in 2017, had been stuck on the 99 mark since netting against Hibernian earlier in the month but, just before the break in Paisley, after a Kemar Roofe penalty had cancelled out a fourth-minute strike by Buddies midfielder Connor Ronan, Morelos headed in a cross from skipper James Tavernier for his landmark goal.
Gerrard, whose side moved three points clear at the top of the cinch Premiership, said: “That’s what we want our number nines to do, run through the goal. We know we have the service from the sides.
“It was a fantastic cross from James but 100 goals at any level for any club is a magnificent achievement.
“I said last week he will smash 100 and hopefully go on and get many more for Rangers.
“Kemar Roofe, 50th appearance, 26 goals, we’ve got two poachers/goal-scorers in our armoury now which is fantastic for me.
“Over the course of a campaign it is not always going to be pretty, you are not always going to find your style and passing rhythm.
“The conditions weren’t really for us today but what we did was find a way to win. All in all a lot of positives but they all came after the first 25 minutes because St Mirren were better in the opening period.”
Additional reporting by Paul Fennessy
