St Mirren skipper Joe Shaughnessy was delighted to finally forget his Hamilton nightmare and celebrate a top-six finish with his Buddies.
And the towering centre back insists the Saints will be gunning for a European spot having already secured an historic first top-half finish since 1985.
Shaughnessy was part of Jim Goodwin’s side that missed out on the top-six in 2021 on goal difference alone after shipping a dramatic late equaliser to Hamilton Accies.
On Saturday afternoon the captain played in a rare defeat in Paisley that ended with celebrations after Dundee United’s win against Livingston confirmed Saints would make history this season.
Now Shaughnessy is determined to lead the club to yet another significant landmark by helping St Mirren seal European football next season.
He told Renfrewshire Live Sport: “We’ve achieved the first part of what we set out to do, getting in the top-six, but now we have a really good chance to kick on and push up the table.
“No one at the club is going to be happy to sit back and get beat in the next five games.
“We’ll try to push on. The only team we haven’t beaten in the top six is Rangers, who we drew with. Why can’t we really try and achieve something even more special?
“For all of the teams in the top-six now, they’re all thinking the same. There’s a chance to push on and get into Europe and that has to be our mindset now.
“I was here two years ago with St Mirren when we missed out on goal difference and that was sickening.
“We drew that day and that was probably the lowest I’ve ever felt in football, sitting in the dressing room in Hamilton.
“To get beaten and still end up in the top-six, that’s absolutely fine with me! We have to enjoy it.”
Shaughnessy admits St Mirren were far from their best in their 2-0 defeat to Kilmarnock, branding it the worst performance of their campaign on home soil.
But the experienced 30-year-old believes their consistency over the course of the season has been pivotal to ending up on the right side of the split, as well as two huge wins against Hearts and Livingston in recent weeks that proved to be pivotal towards the business end of the season.
Shaughnessy said: “That’s probably the worst we’ve been, but over the course of the season I think we got what we deserved.
“It’s 33 games and we set out to get into the top-six this season and we’ve achieved that. We’ll enjoy it and then we’ll try to kick on.
“The wins against Livingston and Hearts in the last couple of weeks were big results for us. I think we did enough.”
READ MORE:
Don't miss the latest Renfrewshire headlines – sign up to our free daily newsletter here
