I’ve got to hold my hands up Buddies. When I was driving up to Pittodrie on Wednesday night, my head wasn’t fully in the game.
While the Saints were gearing up for one of the defining matches of their season, yours truly is currently preparing for one of the biggest days of his life so far.
Having persuaded my girlfriend Jen to sign on a permanent deal, the contract is getting signed next week and I’ll soon be a very happily married man.
As anyone that has planned a wedding will likely know, the last few weeks before the big day are some of the most stressful and hectic you’ll ever experience.
So as I drove up past Perth and Dundee, my thoughts weren’t on the impending St Mirren game as much as they usually would have been.
Thankfully I bumped into some very chatty Buddies at the McDonalds just outside of Aberdeen (stopping for a pre-match athlete’s dinner as always).
Talking to them about the game, the team selection and the club’s chances of victory quickly got my mind back on track to the business at hand.
And it was a seriously important game for Stephen Robinson’s intrepid troops, who have consistently upset the odds throughout this historic campaign.
The main talking point was whether the main man Curtis would be fit to lead the line, a hugely important factor given the injury crisis the club have faced up front over the last few weeks.
Human bulldozer Main has led the line superbly for much of the entire season, and the hope was his desire to get another one over his former employers would be enough to spark another decisive performance at Pittodrie.
Unfortunately, the Buddies never looked like picking up the win they eventually required to stay in the hunt for European football.
Thierry Small’s avoidable and regrettable early red card turned the clash from mission improbable to mission impossible.
When news that Hibs had turned the tide against Celtic and were looking like picking up all three points, I truly felt for the Saints players who were determined to take it all the way to the last game of the season.
That would have been a tremendous achievement in itself, but lets not take the shine off of what has been a truly incredible season for the Paisley club.
It’s vitally important to remember that this is only Robinson’s first full season in charge.
In two transfer windows and 15 short months he’s transformed the squad from top-six hopefuls to top-six achievers.
That is no mean feat considering the state the team was in when they embarrassingly crashed out of the League Cup at the hands of Arbroath and Airdrie.
The turnaround has been sensational and the gaffer has consistently given the strongest, biggest financial hitters in the league a serious run for their money.
Four league points from Celtic this campaign is nothing short of exceptional when you consider the respective gulf in budgets.
A point from Rangers is also not to be sniffed at given their points haul and respective spending power, while the Buddies have also picked up six points from Aberdeen and five from Hearts. Three have also been grabbed from Hibs.
All of those clubs have vastly superior spending power, but Robbo has steered his superb Saints side to wins and draws against all of them.
That has proven that the club are now performing and operating at a much higher level than in previous seasons.
If Robinson can keep the core of his squad together over the summer, and work his recruitment magic again and unearth some more talents in the vein of Keanu Baccus and Ryan Strain, the Buddies could well be on to a winner next season.
Hopefully the Saints faithful, who have brilliantly backed their team all season despite the cost of living crisis, will turn out in numbers again tomorrow to give the players and staff the send off they deserve against Rangers.
I promise I’ll be giving that game my all before I put my out of office on and sail off into my wedding week.
Thanks for all your support of our paper and our content this season, it is truly appreciated.
And like Mark O’Hara said after the game in Aberdeen, I’m already looking forward to seeing what next season will bring.
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