St Mirren boss full of praise for Ireland's Killian Phillips after opening season double

The midfielder netted in each half and was denied a hat-trick by a superb Scott Bain save

Ireland manager Heimir Hallgrimsson and Killian Phillips after last year's friendly against Senegal in Dublin. Pic: INPHO/Bryan Keane

St Mirren manager Craig McLeish has heaped praise on Republic of Ireland international Killian Phillips after a brace of goals that gave them a 2-0 win over Falkirk on the opening day of the Scottish season.

McLeish is convinced his squad will improve on last season’s struggles which saw him steer Saints to safety when interim head coach.

He has set a high bar of the top six and a European qualification bid this term, and a double from Phillips helped that effort off to a fine start at Falkirk Stadium.

“I thought the performance was excellent and, if we can build on that, we can go and achieve something as a group,” McLeish said.

“I’m delighted for the group. We got the result our performance deserved. I thought we were excellent.

“There were so many aspects of our game that I was happy with. We had to defend and dig in at times, but also showed real quality on the ball.

“We counter-attacked very well, which was part of our game plan. The boys who came off the bench gave us a lift and energy.” St Mirren were the top flight’s lowest scorers with 30 goals in 38 games in 2025/26.

Irish midfielder Phillips netted in each half and was denied a hat-trick by a superb Scott Bain save.

“That’s the Killian we know and love and we need that from him every week,” said McLeish.

“He brings so much to the group and it’s just about keeping his levels really high. He holds himself to really high standards.

“We need goals from throughout the team. I don’t think it’s about finding a number nine who can get you 10-15 goals. We have to be chipping in all across the pitch and we did that in the League Cup group stage.

“The pleasing thing is we are creating chances.” 

Rangers loan midfielder Paul Nsio made an eye-catching debut after only training for two days, while McLeish took his signing spree to eight on the morning of the match by recruiting Luke Thomas.

The former Bristol Rovers winger was sent on for a second-half bow.

“We’ve done a lot of recruitment and it’s probably not quite finished yet,” McLeish said.

“We did a lot of work on him (Nsio). He showed why we have brought him in; I thought he was outstanding.” Falkirk boss John McGlynn is handling significant squad turnover from last season’s sixth-placed group, but he admitted he wanted a better display on day one of the new campaign.

“We were naive at the two goals we lost and we didn’t have a killer instinct,” McGlynn said.

“We also weren’t as incisive as we wanted to be, but we only had two players starting who started the final game of last season.

“That tells you the turnaround we are dealing with. We are in quite a big transition and we need to stick together.”