St Mirren defender Joe Shaughnessy feels Saturday’s game against Hamilton could help launch a new era of success for the Paisley club.

The Buddies will secure a top-six Scottish Premiership finish if they win at Hamilton, but anything less would open the door for St Johnstone should the Perth club beat Ross County at home.

Shaughnessy enjoyed a string of top-six finishes with St Johnstone before spending a season with Southend and then returning to Scotland.

And he is well aware that getting into the top six could have a major long-term impact.

St Mirren have never spent the final five games of the season in the top six since the split was brought in and a victory on Saturday would guarantee their highest league placing since at least 1985, when they finished fifth.

“We’ve got a good squad of players and a lot of young players coming through and you’d hope if we got a bit of success this year it would be something we could build on, keep the team together and really push on,” the Irishman said.

“St Johnstone were constantly finishing top six and you really wanted to build on that every year.

“It’s something at St Mirren you would really like to do, not just to finish top six once and then fall back down to the bottom again and fight relegation again.

“If you can do it once you really want to kick on and progress the next year again.”