St Andrews United: Boss Robbie Raeside hails his 'perfectionist' players for not being fully satisfied with 5-1 league win

“I was really pleased with the result,” gaffer Raeside told the Herald and Citizen. “And I think I was more pleased with the performance than the players were.

"We were 3-0 up at half-time and then the second half was a bit scrappy. The players were a bit frustrated at full-time because they felt maybe there were a few passing errors.

"But I had to be positive with the players and say: ‘Don’t be so hard on yourselves’.

"That is a good sign in a way because they are setting high standards for themselves. But it’s getting to the time of the season where it’s results that matter.

"I would say there were bits of quality in the game from us that got us the goals, although I think we’ve played a lot better this season than how we did on Saturday.

"We have just won 10 league games in a row and I can’t remember any team I’ve played in doing that. I’ve played in teams that have had unbeaten runs, but 10 league wins in a row is a phenomenal achievement.

"Saturday’s game was the type of match that we would have drawn earlier in the season. But now we’re putting teams to the sword and we’re taking our chances. There’s a lot of good players who’ve really come on and I’m really pleased with the way they’ve gelled this season.”

Saturday’s win puts second-placed Saints on 55 points from 23 games in East of Scotland League second division, and they have a nine-point cushion over fourth-placed Dalkeith Thistle as the race for a top-three promotion slot enters the final straight.

"We are still not promoted, there’s still nine games to go,” Raeside said. “I think we’ll need to win six of those nine to be guaranteed promotion.

"At this time of year midweek games will come into it and we don’t have a massive squad. We are already dealing with a few injuries so we can’t take anything for granted.”

Raeside revealed centre half and skipper Scott Reekie will miss this Saturday’s King Cup third round trip to Camelon through suspension.

Although Camelon play in a league higher than Saints, they are fifth from bottom of the first division and facing selection problems of their own ahead of the tie.

“Scott being suspended is a blow for us because we’re going to have to shuffle the back four,” Raeside said.

"For the first time this season I will more than likely be starting an under-20 in the back four, although there will be plenty of experience provided by guys like Graham Hay to help him along.

"Graham has been fantastic this season and he’s going to have to be fantastic again alongside Tom Milne and Ross Cunningham. And my bench will be all under-20s.

"But we have certainly nothing to fear and I think we are going to Camelon with a serious intention to get into the next round.

"I said to the players at training that it’s not a case of no pressure. The pressure is on them because I want to get to the next round.

"It won’t be easy because we know they’ve got a lot of players. The hardest thing for me is trying to prepare, as with Syngenta folding they have all the Syngenta players and a lot of them are cup tied although a few will be able to play.

"Although their form has not been great, it’s hard for us to plan for what we’ll be up against.”

Raeside finished by reiterating his praise for the “phenomenal” efforts in recent weeks of unsung heroes at Saints including keeper Calum Brodie, the aforementioned defender Hay, central midfielder Kyle Sneddon and striker Ryan Dignan.