St Mirren boss Jack Ross has urged his players to seize the moment and safeguard their Scottish Championship place as soon as possible.

The upwardly mobile Saints travel to Tannadice today to face third-placed Dundee United in another huge game in their battle to beat the drop.

Having won six of their last 10 games, St Mirren have hauled themselves off the bottom and head into the last three games of the season in eighth place.

Ross’ first match in charge of St Mirren was a 2-0 home defeat to Dundee United back in October but his much-changed side has come on in leaps and bounds since then.

After the trip to the City of Discovery this weekend, St Mirren finish off the campaign with matches against Raith Rovers and Championship winners Hibernian and Ross is keen to have things wrapped up before the final day of the season.

He said: “There’s a united desire to get out of this and that’s never wavered. The desire continues to be strong. It could have diluted because of the challenges we have faced but it hasn’t.

“It’s been tiring and going into games knowing each match is huge can be mentally tough for players. But the finishing line is there and the reward for all this hard work is within their reach. They don’t want to let it go.

“I would love to have this wrapped up as soon as possible. One, it helps my preparation and secondly it would be nice to just relax. It has been challenging for everybody to get through this. If you had said a couple of months ago that we might even miss the relegation play-offs, folk would think you were half daft but now it’s realistic. I’d love to do it with a game to spare.”

Ross added: “When I took the job on, I never expected the season to pan out the way it did. However, once I was in the job I probably understood it a little bit more, accepted where we were and what we needed to do to try to turn it round.

“It’s not just about the team, it’s about the club as a whole and trying to get it on the upwards trajectory again. I think we’ve taken an awful lot of small steps forward recently and now we’ve got one big one to take over these last few games. If we do that, we lay the foundations for the club to continue to progress upwards.”

The Saints have earned plenty of plaudits during their purposeful resurgence and Jack has been impressed by the way his players have handled themselves through good times and bad.

He said: “I don’t think players are as daft as people imagine at times. We have players who don’t get too carried away with the praise and they don’t get too downbeat about any criticism. You want players who are realistic, and that’s what we have. They understand they are a good team. I like that about them and there’s no point playing that down. I want them to believe they are a good squad. I want them to believe they can go to Tannadice and win. When the plaudits have come their way, they have accepted them knowing they have been deserved. If you believe praise when it’s not justified then that’s when it’s a problem but we have players who know where they are."