Tuesday night’s defeat to Dundee United at least ensured that St Mirren defender Gary McKenzie didn’t end up in the doghouse at home.

With just a point required from their trip to Tannadice, there was an informal party planned in a local club for the players should they have made the return journey with promotion to the top flight secured.

As it was, the celebrations will have to wait which, for McKenzie, might be no bad thing.

“If we get the result we need, it’ll mean I get a lot less grief from the missus, because I don’t think she knew if we’d won it on Tuesday that we’d have been out that night and the whole of Wednesday!” he joked.

And for all that Saints were irked at the manner in which they allowed the game to slip away from them after conceding a sloppy two-minute goal to Billy King, there is little doom and gloom as they hone in on Saturday’s encounter against Livingston.

If McKenzie was disappointed with Tuesday’s result, he didn’t need to search too hard for some perspective.

This time last April a 3-2 defeat at Tannadice after a nauseating last minute goal left the Paisley side fighting for their lives as they flirted dangerously with relegation.

The consequencies of dropping a division would have been far reaching, so little wonder then that there was an ease with which St Mirren could dust themselves down and look to Saturday.

“It’s a pressure I’d take any day of the week compared to the kind we were under this time last season,” said the veteran defender.

“We came here and lost with the last kick of the ball, the day the ref didn’t see one of their boys kung-fu kicking me right in the middle of the chest.

“We’re so close to winning a league now, the fans are out in huge numbers, things are going great – that’s the kind of pressure you come into football to be under. Last season, the pressure we were under meant people could have lost their jobs. You didn’t know what lay ahead for the club if we went down.

“Having said that, though, even on days like that one at Tannadice, I never thought we would go down. I always believed we had enough, definitely. Whether it took the play-offs, whatever, there was never any doubt for me that we’d stay up.

“I don’t think anyone expected things to go quite as well this season, but we knew after the way we’d played against Hibs home and away and at home to United – the teams everyone said were miles better than the rest – that we were as good as anyone.”

For now, though, it is all about putting on a show on Saturday.

With four goals to go, St Mirren require just a solitary point to formalise their return to top flight football and McKenzie wants them to do it with a bit of style.

“Livingston have had a great season, they’ll come and make it difficult, but we’ll have a full house and the title to play for and it’s up to us now,” he said.

“It’s a strange one, though. We know that any slip from Livi gives us it anyway, but we still need to get that point under our own steam. It’s an odd situation that brings its own pressure.

“The fans have been incredible. Even last season, when we were so far off survival and it must have been sore to watch, they came out and they dragged us through it. They gave us that wee extra bit when it mattered and we owe them for that, so it’s great that they now have something they can celebrate.

“We’re looking forward to walking out in front of them on Saturday and hopefully giving them the result we all want.”