Toyosi Olusanya reckons St Mirren rediscovered their identity against Rangers. The Buddies lost 2-1 to the Light Blues at Ibrox on Sunday but produced arguably their best Premiership performance of the season.
Stephen Robinson’s men were on the front foot from the word go, pressed high, caused the Gers defence problems and crunched into tackles. It was just what the doctor ordered following the 4-0 defeat to Hearts at Tynecastle in which Saints offered nothing.
The Paisley outfit now have successive top-flight tussles at the SMiSA Stadium against St Johnstone on Wednesday night and Ross County at the weekend.
And Olusanya – who is the club’s top scorer with six goals – feels the team took a step forward going back to what they know.
The 27-year-old said: “Regardless of whether it is Rangers or another team, you want to play your game. As players, you have to believe you can go to any place and get a result.
“After what happened last week, it was important there was a reaction and we showed we are a good team. It didn’t end up the way we wanted it to but there are a lot of positives.
“After a bad run of games, sometimes people can get too down. We have to get back to doing what we do best and that is being hard to beat, being hard to break down and pressing with intensity.
“In the second half of last season, there were a lot of important points to play for and I think we picked up quite a few of them.
“It’s not been a great period for us but we know things can change. Maybe a result in the next couple of games takes us from where we are now to potentially the top six and we can just kick on from there.”
Olusanya admitted there was some soul-searching in the wake of the Jambos debacle and continued: “We all looked at ourselves and know we didn’t give our best, we didn’t set our press and we didn’t play our game.
“Regardless of the result, we said we were going to come here and play the way we play, press the way we press and show everyone we can give a reaction. There was a belief we could get something and, even when we went 2-1 down, there were a few waves of attacks.
“We made it hard for them to clear their box and we were just unlucky at the end of the day.”
Olusanya gave Gers centre-backs Robin Propper and Leon Balogun a torrid time and was at the centre of key action moments. He dragged a first-half shot wide, saw a goal ruled out for offside and had claims for a penalty when checked in the box by Neraysho Kasanwirjo turned down.
“I’ve seen it back,” he said of his missed opportunity, “and I think I had more time than I’d anticipated. When you miss a chance as a striker, you want to forget about it and go again.
“[For the offside goal] I thought I’ll put it away and see what happens but, seeing it back, it was tighter than I thought. I think the ball gets stuck under Kilts’ [Greg Kiltie] foot. If that doesn’t get stuck and I go through, on another day it’s a goal.
“The ref said he played the advantage at first but, looking back, I think it was a penalty. They said they checked it so there must not have been enough to go to the screen. This is a tough place to come and they are a really good team but I thought the boys dug deep.”
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