St Mirren midfielder Paul McGowan will be glad to see the end of a difficult season on and off the park.

But he knows he has to help Saints get out of their predicament in the lower echelons of the Scottish Premiership before he can start looking up again.

McGowan's campaign started as badly as his team's. A week after an opening 3-0 defeat by Inverness, the former Celtic player was arrested for assaulting two policemen during a night out in his home town of Airdrie.

The prospect of jail hung over him until he was sentenced to 130 hours of unpaid work in January and vowed to learn from his mistakes.

But the on-field worries have not cleared, and Saints go into today's home match with Hibs just one point above the relegation play-off place.

The 26-year-old said of the season: "It's been up and down. I've had a lot of personal issues which have been well documented. I just want to put that behind me and focus on these last games. Obviously I will be glad to see the end of this season.

"Inconsistency has summed up our season. One week we can beat a team 3-0 and the next week we can get beat 3-0.

"We can't seem to get a run of performances going and it's frustrating - if you look at our dressing room we have a real team in there and we have just not done enough this season to prove it. We can only repay the fans and the manager by getting out of this position."

McGowan predicts a fraught finale to the season ahead of a match that could see Saints draw level on 34 points with their visitors.

"It's going to be nerve-racking," said McGowan, who has recovered from a hamstring strain that forced him off during St Mirren's win over Motherwell.

"All teams down there are in a precarious position. If we beat Hibs, they're back in it as well, so it's going to be a massive couple of weeks and it's exciting for the league.

"It's frantic. One wee slack pass and the fans are on it, but we all need to stick together as a club and players and we will get through it."

Hibs assistant manager Maurice Malpas says the trip to Paisley is the first of five chances for his squad to prove they have an Easter Road future.

Manager Terry Butcher is expected to have a summer clear-out but Malpas says while there is a chance Hibs could join city rivals Hearts in the Championship their plans must wait.

"We can't really look at the close season and what we want to do because we can only look at Saturday and trying to get three points," he said.

"It would be wrong to put too much emphasis on our summer plans when we still have this season to take care of."