David Gray hails Hibs players after hard-fought St Mirren win but claims: 'My future is irrelevant'

Ewan Henderson’s first goal for the Easter Road side on 74 minutes was enough to secure three points at a sunsoaked SMiSA Stadium as the 33-year-old got his second temporary spell in charge of the club off to a winning start.

Gray praised his players’ reaction to last weekend’s Scottish Cup semi-final defeat by Hearts and the sudden departure of Shaun Maloney.

"I wouldn't say I enjoyed it – I enjoy winning, that's the most important thing, and that's the feeling and the message I gave to the players which is enjoy winning games of football.

“It's very tough at times, it's very challenging, and ultimately you need to enjoy these moments when you do win because that's the most important thing and that's why we do it.

“We need to finish the season as well as we possibly can and use the disappointment of not achieving what we set out to do, which was a fourth-place finish and European football.

"Nobody's shied away from that, we failed to achieve that, and the reaction has been fantastic – I think the performance and attitude today showed that.”

Gray also had praise for Henderson, who showed great composure to fire the winning goal in front of the travelling fans.

"He's got that in his locker. He's been fantastic since he came in and his performance last week was really good as well.

“He's been working really hard in training and if he can keep adding performances like that and goals to his game I think he's going to be a top player.”

Despite a winning start, Gray brushed aside any suggestion of wanting the Easter Road job on a full-time basis and insisted his future wasn’t important.

"The decision has absolutely nothing to do with me; this is all about a job I've been asked to do between now and the end of the season, which is to try to accumulate as many points as we can,” he said patiently.

"It's been a good start but our attention now turns to Livingston. My future's irrelevant at the moment.”