Who would have thought at the start of the season we would be heading into November, sitting in 3rd place, 2 points ahead of the team in 4th with a game in hand away to Ross County? A very credible away performance to Celtic, where we scored first through Conor McMenamin's first goal for Saints has given us much confidence going into the busy run heading to Xmas. Surely given where we find ourselves in the table Stephen Robinson is a strong contender for manager of the month?
For Stephen Robinson he has a team in the dressing room fully committed to his success. We are now a team that is very difficult to beat at the SMiSA stadium and increasingly stubborn to beat away from home. The fans are loving the product we are seeing on the park at the moment.
Speaking of the fans, the support the team is receiving from the stands has been fantastic. 7500 in the ground for the games v Aberdeen and Hearts with a great support of 5500 v St Johnstone last weekend. Of those attending those games about 5000 were St Mirren supporters and what an atmosphere we are creating. There is no doubt the fans passion is carrying onto the pitch and definitely energises the players. Those who attended the Rangers game, where there were visibly hundreds less Saints fans, were to experience a completely different match day experience. The away fans “song” repertoire was in full flow and could be heard clearly on TV for all.
We have been contacted by a few fans wanting to know what the club are doing regarding this. We met with the SMFC board earlier this week and they informed us both John Needham and Keith Lasley were meeting with representatives from the SPFL CEO Neil Doncaster on Wednesday 1st November and an update will be provided by the club once the matter has been considered further by the SPFL.
Talking of Keith, please check out the excellent piece of work he has completed setting out his vision for St Mirren over the next few years, SMiSA are excited with what the future holds and fully committed to supporting the club deliver this.
Mid-October the club celebrated the 10th Anniversary of our League Cup win over Hearts on St Mirren’s day 2013. The packed event was held at the Normandy Hotel and many of the players from the squad attended on the night. It was a tremendous occasion and a fitting tribute from all in attendance to Manager Danny Lennon and his team. Special mention again to Commercial Manager Campbell Kennedy and his team for pulling the night together.
The extremely late postponement of our away game to Ross County leaves a bitter taste. Many fans were already in Dingwall or more than halfway en route when the game was postponed. It came as no surprise to many, bar Police Scotland, that the weather impact would be so severe as to have the game cancelled. I`ve said many times football fans are treated abysmally yet week after week they part with their hard-earned cash to follow their team. Hopefully, where possible, the club will try to financially support fans having to pay out for 2 long journeys North.
I had a great meeting with Jim Gillespie last month with more frequent meetings planned for the future with Jim and Mark to continue to develop our relationship for the benefit of the club.
Finally, we met with the SMiSA Directors on the SMFC board on Monday 30th October and we had an extremely productive meeting of both boards. We received a financial update from Alex White and can report the club is in a much more stable financial position than this time last year. It is to the credit of the Directors, Keith Lasley and all the staff that we find ourselves in this position. The recruitment of Eilidh McKerry our new club accountant has allowed even more clarity around performance so far this year. The club will update on the financial year ending May 2023 in due course.
For a variety of reasons October has been a busy month. As a SMiSA board we are pushing on with a few initiatives that can only benefit our members further. Off the park we continue to build relationships with our SMFC board, with our partners Kibble and are planning meeting in the coming weeks with the Academy team, the St Mirren Charitable Foundation as well as our SMFC Women’s team. On the park we go from strength to strength, and it is great to see so many new fans coming to games.
Nothing is more pleasing to look at a sea of Black and White across our 3 stands and YOUR support is never taken for granted.
Get behind the team and enjoy the game.
Alex