Saints came back from 2-0 down to force extra time but then shipped four goals in 12 minutes in their Scottish Cup semi final showdown
Gutted Mikael Mandron reckons if St Mirren had been given five more minutes in normal time they would have knocked Celtic out of the Scottish Cup.
The Hoops were on the ropes as the big striker scored a double to bring it back to 2-2. Mandron’s leveller was in the 91st minute but Celtic got the chance to regroup in extra time and managed to come away with a flattering 6-2 win.
The striker claimed: “I thought we had them. I think if there's a few more minutes left in the normal time, I think we're going to win it.
“We did and sometimes in football it happens like that, when one goal changes everything. We started all right and then the game just got away from us.
“It’s tough. It's hard to explain. They scored three goals in what, five or ten minutes? After that, it's really, really difficult.”
The Frenchman doesn’t think the final score told the true story. He claimed: “I think if someone hasn't watched the game, they see the scoreline and they'll think we got battered or whatever.
“But that wasn't the case. Anyone who watched the game, will have seen we gave them a good game.
“In the last part of normal time, we probably were better and we had a chance to go and win it. It didn't happen that way.
“It is very frustrating because the way the game finishes at 6-2, it doesn't feel fair. Now it feels like we were miles away, but we weren’t.”
He was dreaming of being the hero when his second went in. “It was amazing,” the former Motherwell player added. “It's hard to say that now because we've lost and I'm very disappointed.
“But at the time, you just can't explain it. It's the best feeling in the world. You run into the fans and you think, I didn't know how many minutes were left?
“I was a bit torn between, are we happy going into extra time or are we trying to push forward to win it?”
St Mirren lost a goal in the first minute and then back-up keeper Ryan Mullen through injury. They had to hand a debut to 17-year-old Grant Tamosevicius. Mandron praised the young keeper.
“When Ryan came off, obviously we were all very disappointed,” the forward stated. “But when Grant came on, we were all very confident because we all know what he can do.
“We train with him every day and we know he's a very good goalkeeper, so there was no issue there. I think he did as well.
“He came on, which is not easy. That was his first game in a massive fixture. “He is young but I thought he did really well.
“He looked calm out there. He did well with a few shots that he had to do. Fair play to him.”
St Mirren now need to get over it quickly and keep themselves out of the relegation position. That starts with a home game against bottom side Livingston.
He stated: “Obviously, now that's done. We've got five huge games to play. We've got everything to play for.
“The aim is to stay up. As you said, it's very frustrating now, but when we go back to training next week, we'll put it behind us.
“If you can take a Celtic team to the wire in 90 minutes and score goals and create chances and cause them problems, then for sure we'll be able to do well against them in the bottom six.”
