MACCA ON DUNDEE: 'WE NEED TO PUT A FULL 90 MINUTES TOGETHER'

Ahead of Saturday’s derby match against Dundee, striker Steven MacLean emphasises the need to build on Saints’ strong goal-scoring start to the season, but also to defend well as a team.

“There’ve been positives to take out of the games. We scored three against Hearts and we’ve scored in the other two games as well, so we’ve been creating chances, but we’re not winning games. The positives are there, but we need to put a full 90 minutes together. I think there’ve been patches of good play in our games but the game lasts for 90 minutes, so we need to try and play the game against Dundee for the full 90 minutes.

“We started the season pretty well last year, but maybe a shorter European stint and a longer pre-season have contributed to us scoring more goals earlier on this season. I think that in the past we’ve always created chances, but we’ve just not taken them. I think we need to get back to being a team that’s hard to beat, and we need a mixture of goals and clean sheets. I think as a team, we need to get better at defending, and obviously keep scoring goals as well.

“We’re going to have to go to Dens and perform well, because they’ve had a really good start to the season, but everybody keeps talking about them, but if you look at it, if we go there on Saturday and get three points, then we go above them in the league, and our start to the season won’t be looking so bad. I think we’ll go there, we’ll be positive and we’ll look to take the three points. We need to defend well and work really hard as a team, and hopefully we can come out on top.

MacLean, who has a habit of scoring in Saints’ biggest games, will be looking to add to his tally of goals against Tayside rivals Dundee.

“I think I’ve played up there twice (for Saints) and we won 3-1, I remember the game, (Gregory) Tade scored, Liam Craig scored and I scored, and in the other it was 2-2, and me and Cuptie scored. They’re always good games and we always have a big following. It’s great to have 1000 or 1500 Saints fans there, and hopefully they’ll shout us on and we’ll give them something to shout about, and we’ll bring home the three points.”

Interview by Ross Gardiner