When Stephen McGinn left St Mirren in 2010, the club were flying high in the top half of what was then the SPL, and they had just qualified for the semi-final of the League Cup. At the end of his second bow in a Saints jersey on Saturday, the club were seven points adrift at the bottom of the Championship.
Perhaps only the pound sterling can rival St Mirren in terms of the steep and rapid decline in their fortunes, but as McGinn acknowledged after the defeat to Falkirk, the only currency worth a damn around the Greenhill Road at the moment are points.
Three slipped away from them here thanks to a John Baird double for the visitors either side of half-time, and although the home team belatedly rallied with a well-taken Rory Loy goal, they took from the game what they deserved over the piece.
St Mirren are fast running out of time, and McGinn and his teammates are only too aware of that stark fact.
“I knew coming here that we had 14 cup finals left and we’ve lost the first one,” McGinn said.
“I knew it was going to be tough coming in, but Falkirk are a good side and they are up the top end of the league for a reason.
“I didn’t think there was much in the game, they were probably just a bit more clinical and streetwise than we were. You wouldn’t say looking at the game today that there was 20 points between the teams.
“Falkirk are a team that just knows how to win football matches though, and we’re a team that is used to not winning football games which is a problem. We need to change that and we need to do it as soon as we can.
“The team is bottom for a reason, I knew I wasn’t going to be coming in here and winning every game. I knew it was going to be a fight and a struggle.
“We haven’t got long left and we’re rooted to the bottom. We need to start winning football games and next week is massive.”
Indeed it is. Jack Ross takes his side to third-bottom Dumbarton on Saturday, with the Sons opening up an 11-point gap on the Saints with a crucial win at the weekend.
“They’ve had a huge win up at Raith Rovers, and I know from speaking to my brother that it is a notoriously hard place to go to,” said McGinn.
“Nobody goes there and wins comfortably, so we know we have to be up for a real fight and it is a big six-pointer for us.
“My mind-set is that we need to win football matches. The fans stuck with us again today and they never turned on us, so they deserve to win football matches.
“We’re not looking to draw games, we need to go there looking to win.”
For Falkirk, this hard-fought victory was timely after a couple of poor performances in the home draw against Ayr and the defeat at Morton in the Scottish Cup, and the goals were an especially welcome fillip for striker Baird.
His first came in controversial circumstances as Myles Hippolyte launched a throw-in over the home defence from a position far advanced from where the ball went out of play. As St Mirren protested, Baird got on with the job of sticking the ball in the net, squeezing home under Saints keeper Billy O’Brien.
His second just after the hour was a well-taken volley from inside the area which owed much to some accomplished set-up play by strike partner Lee Miller, who found space before dinking a clever cross into Baird’s path to finish.
‘I’ve not scored since Hibs in November,” said a relieved Baird. “I missed a few chances against Ayr and I was out of the team last week. You’re disappointed when you’re out of the team so the manager got a wee reaction today.
“I like playing football, every time I play I fancy my chances of getting a goal. If I get chances I’m confident I’ll put them away.
“We needed to win today, that was like a cup final. [It will have a big decision] on where our season’s really going.
“We’re six points behind Dundee United and we’ve got to think we can go and catch them and get second place, like we did last season.”
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