IT may not come as much of a surprise that Marc McAusland prefers to play away.

The St Mirren defender and his team-mates have not enjoyed much of a love-in back home this season, with the Buddies having lost 11 and drawn two of their league games in Paisley.

Given that staggering statistic still stands as the SPFL Premiership campaign gets ready to lurch into February, it is light relief for the centre-half that the can focus on flirting with Friday-night football at Firhill tonight.

"The home form is still a problem for us and the sooner we rectify it the better," explained McAusland.

"With the way the home record has been this season it would be good to get a result in this one because I'd expect a lot of our fans will come to this game because Firhill is not too far away.

"I just prefer playing away because we've got a better record having won a lot more games. There's not as much pressure on you when you're playing away because the home team is always expected to win.

"It's just a personal preference, I'm sure if you asked some of the other boys in the team they'd say they prefer playing at home.

"Maybe it's a mental thing just because of the way things have been going for us this season, picking up more points on the road. But it's starting to be a bit of a burden playing at home these days because we've not picked up very many points there.

"We've put ourselves in a lot of good positions only to lose the lead with stupid goal, so I just feel more comfortable away from home at the moment."

A win tonight would also provide a psychological lift as well as a physical one for Saints.

Three points against the Jags would not only provide a great morale-boost for Gary Teale's team, but it would also elevate them into tenth above Motherwell ahead of the Steelmen's meeting with St Johnstone tomorrow.

And McAusland said: "If we play tonight and get a result they [Motherwell and Ross County] will go into their game the next day thinking 'we need to win or we could be a wee bit adrift.'

"But we just need to focus on ourselves and if we can pick up as many points as we can I'm sure we'll pull ourselves out of the situation we're in."