northstbuddie

This will be an ideal opportunity for JR to try out his many new signings in a competitive match without fear of dropping any much-needed points in the Championship. A victory could see a significant uplift in team confidence which would not go wrong at this particular time! Any guesses at a team selection with so many relative unknowns in the new-look squad?

He can't stay away from Paisley!

From the super duper Shull - the expert in SOOPER DOOPERS.

I'll have to play that again - I blinked and missed the St Mirren highlights!

We can all agree/agree to disagree on who is to blame for our current plight and, like the majority of Saints fans, I am far from happy with particular aspects of our performances this season. But how can persistent and unrelenting negativity contribute to a recovery in our fortunes this season? For instance, I agree that shoring up our defence is the remaining priority during this transfer window but slagging off individuals in our current squad is not the best way of achieving that. We should be encouraging improved performances from those we perceive are falling short at present instead of cutting them to ribbons. That's the opposition's objective after all!

The first 'cheer' from you for quite a while! Hopefully there will be more to come!

No my point is positive encouragement is more likely to benefit the team and the manager than unrelenting negativity. Many on here see the same things as you do but refrain from stating the obvious when it is likely to have a detrimental effect on the team's confidence. Constructive criticism is one thing but unceasing negativity from day one is unlikely to have any beneficial impact on the team you support - so why pursue it?

So should we, as supporters, stop supporting our team (and manager) and offering encouragement? TC has been negative about JR from day one. What good does that do other than make TC feel good?

Stay as positive as ever TC - you are our only little ray of sunshine Where would we be without your encouragement?

No way would the current team match the 2013 team but IF we avoid relegation this season that would be greater reason to rejoice than the League cup win. That you may remember was followed by an alcoholic bender which we never quite recovered from. This might also explain some of the boardroom decisions taken shortly after!

We have literally been all over the place in recent seasons with new managers and so-called promising new signings - only for our hopes to be cruelly dashed time after time. Will the run up to the end of the 2016/17 season see us achieve the greatest escape ever? Personally I think the Jack Ross and James Fowler management team can pull it off, even although results so far would not appear to back up that opinion. Many professionals in the game speak highly of JR and his potential to be a first rate football manager. His excursion into the January transfer window so far, appears to be addressing the obvious weaknesses in the imbalanced squad he inherited. If we avoid the drop to the 3rd level of Scottish football it would truly be the greatest feat in recent times even surpassing the League Cup win of 2013. We, the fans, have an important part to play in turning up in larger numbers and giving the team our positive support and encouragement. However, this will only happen in response to better results on the park - a chicken & egg situation perhaps. Even if we do not succeed in staying in the Championship this season, the indications are that JR (quite rightly) will stay in post and that where there previously was only despair, there is now at least hope of better things to come in the not too distant future.

Just imagine - a St Mirren team with a functioning midfield - now there's a novelty! I hope that JR's signings help us to turn the corner at last. However, can we watch this space to find out what is done to improve our defence during the transfer window? - This is Jack's biggest challenge in my view.

I admire your indefatigability TC - but gies a break even just for a day. Whether or not these 4 elderly gentlemen would be interested is totally irrelevant - they're not going to be asked in the first place.

St Mirren legend now substituted.

Just as well that the BoD don't share your much valued opinion TC.

You can watch Connor Newton live on Bt Sport 2 playing (well) for Cambridge United v Leeds United in the FA Cup.

Agree with everything you say except unlike you I do not hope we stay in "this league" - I want us to be competing with the Hamilton Accies and Ross Counties of this world!

If third or fourth in the second tier is where you believe we rightfully belong (in the medium to longterm?) and where we will bounce back to, I admire your loyalty in these circumstances IOBS. I am old enough to remember when Love Street was regularly packed to the gunnels - when we had a successful team (in comparative terms) and were run more competently. The BoD over the past few years is collectively responsible for our current plight and Hibs are proving that when you do turn things round on the park the fans come flocking back. The difference is that our BoD have not been effective in planning for success on the park.

During the Murray, Rae and Ross reigns, most (but not all) on here thought that they were not bad appointments (initially at least) and were willing to give them a chance. As time passed and our deterioration continued at a pace not witnessed on the playing field, opinions changed with the benefit of hindsight and like all managers of St Mirren in recent times they were then written off as abject failures and 'bad appointments'. It could be argued that only Hendrie and MacPherson have achieved any semblance of success in the past 20 years or so, and in the previous 20 or so years to that a certain Alex Ferguson, Ricky McFarlane and Jim Clunie, could claim likewise. In fact since 1970 (when Wilson Humphries was manager) we have had 22 managers over a period of 46 years - an average time in charge of 2 years per manager. Gus McPherson enjoyed nearly 7 years in charge and kept St Mirren at a level we can only dream about now. In the 6 and a half years since then we have had 7 managers (if you include Allan McManus) - with an average time in charge of less than a year over that period. Also during that time we moved to a dinky wee stadium appropriate for junior football (or 3rd tier senior football) and we have ended up playing that grade of football. We now have a situation where (in 2 months time) the likes of Ross County, Hamilton Accies, Patrick Thistle and Kilmarnock, could be 2 leagues ahead of St Mirren - the club from the largest town in Scotland outside the city clubs. We all have our opinion as to who is to blame for our current predicament but one thing is for certain IT IS NOT JACK ROSS! Yes he can shoulder the blame (along with the senior players in the squad) for the current run of poor results but he must be given time to turn things around and I personally believe he has the potential/ability to do that along with James Fowler. Unfortunately we may have to drop down to the third level before things start to improve.

Job done TC now give the guy (and us) a break.

How we have adjusted our aspirations as this season has progressed (regressed?). No-one realistically believed we would win the Championship outright but most of us thought a play-off spot was not out of the question. We then talked of mid-table safety and then after that it was steering clear of the bottom. Now most of us are resigned to relegation to the third tier of second-rate Scottish football. We have seen very little this season to make us believe we are not where we deserve to be and are seriously asking when will the rot stop? What is perhaps more pertinent is to ask when did the rot start and who saw it coming? The answer to that is April 2013 and many of us were baffled by the sweeping clear out of the cup winning team over the following season or so and were concerned at that time by their replacement by second/third division players rather than using the nucleus of the 2013 team and building on that. Instead the BoD pursued a policy of harikari in the interests of protecting their investments. Who can blame them?

And they said that the Championship was a hard league to get out of. We are proving everyone wrong!

I think it is becoming clearer by the day where our season is headed - Dunfermline now 2-0 up on Raith - the others are pulling away from us and we are becoming more stranded at the bottom. We have been lampooned on 'Only an Excuse' and are the butt of ridicule as a result of mismanagement by the previous BoD since our brief minute of glory in 2013. Like our hogmanay performance we have made an art out of losing from winning positions. Unless Jack Ross and the team turn things round immediately in terms of results we are really going to have to rely on Donald Trump to make us great once again. Wait a minute I was only joking - but what if Gordon Scott had a word in Donald's ear about backing St Mirren to the tune of $M??? in the transfer window - what an opportunity for some positive publicity in the UK for Donald by supporting a good charitable cause in a deprived area of Scotland?

Quite true Stu - I can quite honestly admit that I have never once in my life associated vanilla (or any other flavour) with "good honest opinion".

Like a certain young Tony Fitzpatrick - captain at the tender age of 17?