Play-off bigger than League Cup final for St Mirren - Phillips
Killian Phillips says there's more at stake than top flight status for St Mirren in the Premiership play-off final against Partick Thistle. The Irish midfielder is aware that jobs could be lost at the club if the Buddies are relegated to the Championship. "There's a lot of repercussions around the people that you don't see behind the scenes," he said.
"Jobs at stake, people's livelihoods are at stake. If we manage to stay up, then I think a cup win and a semi-final and staying in the league is an excellent achievement. " Although he's already assured of "club legend" status and a league cup winners medal, Phillips feels the home and away legs are far more important than the Hampden win over Celtic last December but he believes the big game experience will be a big help.
"These two games are bigger than a semi-final and bigger than the final," he added. "But we've played in big games and we've performed in big games. You think about the Motherwell semi-final in the League Cup [a 4-1 win], then the final [beating Celtic 3-1] and even the Scottish Cup semi-final, I thought we were very good in that for ninety minutes.
"So we've seen that can perform in big games. So it'll definitely help us that we've played in those big games. We're confident.
" Those cup runs have taken their toll on the Buddies though as far as the Irishman is concerned, stretching a small squad to its limits and contributing to a disappointing league season in which only 30 goals were scored and eight games won. "A lot of our key players have been injured at key times. We've had a lot of games and as mad as it sounds the the cup runs probably didn't help us as well because we're such a small squad.