ST MIRREN took their leave from the top flight of Scottish football in the most anaemic fashion indicating the magnitude of the task that awaits new manager Iain Murray.
A wretched campaign ended with defeat by Hamilton through Ali Crawford's excellent finish seven minutes from time and also in acrimony as Gary Teale expressed his bitter disappointment at not being given the manager's job and the timing off the announcement.
Teale was sickened that the Saints board named Murray on Friday on the eve of the final game of the season.
He said: He said: "It was extremely difficult going into game when the decision has already come out and it was hard to be motivated for the players.
"It was disappointing because it could have been done after the game or even on Monday morning which would have allowed me to prepare properly for the game.
"Let's be honest, no matter if you are Mourinho and in the same situation, it was always going to be difficult going into the last game of the season with that scenario on Friday.
"I felt as if II was getting somewhere in terms of getting things out of the players and also bringing a lot of the younger ones through with an eye to next season.
Teale only won seven of his 23 matches in charge, losing 14, and two of the victories came after Saints were officially relegated.
He still has a year left as a player but it is hard to see a continuing working relationship given the circumstances.
For Accies it was a good end to a season which really can be defined by two halves.
Overall they have to be satisfied with finishing seventh and, as is regularly the case, they will finish with more points than the sixth-place side, in this case Dundee, and also potentially fifth-place Dundee United.
However, having accumulated 36 points from the first 19 matches to sit four points behind then leaders Aberdeen, gaining half that total in the second half of the campaign there is a season of disappointment.
Marian Kello had kept them out, saving twice from Crawford and then Longridge, when he was finally beaten in 83 minutes.
It was perhaps fitting that veteran striker Jason Scotland was involved in what was probably his last game for Accies.
He laid the ball off to Crawford who produced a wonderful finish from the edge off the box, finding the right corner from just outside of the box.
Boss Martin Canning said: "It's been a great end to the season, over the last six weeks. I didn't want it to fizzle out and for the boys not to do themselves justice.
"The great thing was that we had 10 academy players in the squad. Give started. We are not doing it for the sake of it. These guys are capable of playing in the Premiership."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article