ST MIRREN manager Jim Goodwin says that Celtic are miles ahead of anyone in the Scottish Premiership, but he believes his side can probably pick up points when Rangers come to Paisley later this month.

Goodwin praised Neil Lennon’s side after his team went down to a meek 5-0 defeat at Celtic Park, but he says that the run of games coming up offer St Mirren a much better chance of improving their position at the bottom of the table.

“Celtic are miles ahead of everyone in this league,” Goodwin said.

“It’s quite scary really, they probably never got out of second gear and still put five past us.

“We have to take it on the chin, but we can’t allow it to hurt us too much. We are proud people and we will analyse and look at what we can do better.

“Celtic have played 16 games here in the league and won 15, with Rangers the only team to beat them.

“They put four, five, six or seven past teams all the time at Parkhead and we're on the receiving end of a sore one this afternoon.

“But these games against the Old Firm won't define our season.

“We've got Hearts on Wednesday night, then Hearts and Ross County. We've got Rangers at home which we believe we can potentially pick something up in.”

Goodwin says that he didn’t write off his team’s chances of picking anything up from their visit to Celtic Park beforehand, but conceded he did have one eye on the crucial midweek clash against Hearts.

“There was an element of picking a team today with a view to Wednesday night,” he said.

“We set up in a manner to give us the best chance of picking up something from the game. But I'd be lying if I said Wednesday night wasn't more important.

“We go into every game trying to win it, but we knew how difficult it would be here.

“We are all a little bit gutted about how it went. If you get anything at Parkhead when they are in this form it’s huge bonus but the way we defended for some of the goals made it more difficult.”