ALLAN JOHNSTON admits that Saturday’s trip to relegation rivals St Mirren is “massive” but has earmarked the next seven games as crucial in Dunfermline’s season.

The Pars boss takes his team to Paisley for the tea-time televised kick-off having picked up just three draws in six Championship matches since their last victory against the Buddies in September.

The winless bottom dogs, five points behind Athletic, have since changed manager with former Par Jack Ross taking the reins and Johnston knows the importance of a victory that would give them much-needed breathing space over their rivals – and put pressure on those immediately above them.

Johnston is looking forward to forthcoming league games leading into the New Year period as an opportunity to build some momentum and turn their disappointing start to the season around.

When asked whether Saturday’s clash fell into the “must-win” category, he told Press Sport: “I don’t know if it’s must-win but it’d be great to win and put a bit of daylight between ourselves and St Mirren. Because the league’s so tight, every game will be crucial so we need to make sure we approach every one the same, and not just the St Mirren game but the ones after that.

“It’s your Ayr Uniteds, your Mortons, your Queen of the Souths, your Raith Rovers that are all games we need to win and pick up points from because one win’s not going to be enough.

“We’re desperate to get a result against them but I’m sure they’ll be the same. We’re defending a million times better and we’ve created chances but we’re still looking for more chances to be created. Other than that, it’s certainly going in the right direction I think. We look harder to beat so that’s pleasing. You’ve no chance of winning games if you lose goals like we were so I think we’ve learned from that and we’ve still got good quality going forward. I’m sure the goals will come.

“I’m sure St Mirren will come out flying as well. I was at their game the other day and they did well; they were unfortunate probably to be a goal down and they got the two goals in the last 10 minutes, which I’m sure will give them a big lift, but the league’s different. The teams are quite similar and I’m confident we’ve got players capable of getting ourselves higher up the table, especially with the way we’ve been defending recently.

“We’re still not happy because we’re not getting the wins we deserve but there’s certainly been a lot more plus points.”

Although they came up short against Dundee United in league and cup, Johnston continued: “I don’t think there’s been much between the two teams when you look over the last two games but, obviously, we’ve been down to 10 men in them. You can’t fault the players for the effort they put in; they never let their heads go down, kept at it and I thought we showed good fitness levels. That game’s gone though and we’ve got to focus on getting results that can get us clear of this position we’re in just now.

“It’s a big game and it would be massive for us to get a result which would hopefully be a springboard to build on and go on a run.

“You just need to look at Morton and the way they’ve picked up; they have got that confidence of winning games and that’s what we need to get to as well. It comes with working even harder and, to be fair to the players, they’re doing that. We’re going to need everybody in the squad pulling together and making sure they give everything to turn our season around.”

Despite his red card on Saturday, Lewis Martin is available for the trip but Ben Richards-Everton, Gavin Reilly and David Hopkirk remain sidelined through injury, while Nat Wedderburn serves the last of his two-match suspension.

Ryan Williamson suffered tendonitis in his knee during the warm-up at Dundee United last Tuesday and will also miss out.