FOR long-suffering St Mirren fans, home is continually where the hurt is.

When the club's commercial department launched a drive to try to push season ticket sales last summer, presumably there was a caveat attached that victories would not be guaranteed. For all that marketing and PR gurus try to promote the whole matchday experience - the ambience, the music, the delights of beef stock-based boiling hot beverages - it is presumably seeing your team win from time to time that entices supporters back week after week, year after year. On the cusp of spring, St Mirren fans have yet to experience such a thrill in the league this season.

It is not difficult to see why manager Gary Teale and his players find themselves embroiled in the increasingly unseemly three-way scrap to avoid the drop. Not since Ross County were slain 1-0 on May last year - a result that effectively eased their relegation worries for another year - have St Mirren won a league match at home. Unsurprisingly it is their worst ever home record, surpassing events from 1991/1992 when under Davie Hay's stewardship they were relegated out of the top flight for the first time in 15 years. It took them a further eight years to recover.

This year the only success has been a League Cup win over League One side Dunfermline. Beyond that, it has been slim pickings. Two draws and a total of seven goals mean cheer has been in short supply in Paisley. On Saturday they will try for the 16th time - including the 1-1 draw with Hearts on the final game of last season - to finally win a home league game when Hamilton Academical, in a bit of bother themselves, are the visitors.

It was revealing to read defender Jeroen Tesselaar, in a wide-ranging interview, reveal that at St Mirren Park they have placed the pegs higher in the away dressing room to try to make the opposition feel smaller. As far as mind games go, it clearly isn't having the desired effect. Instead it is the home players who seem to feel intimidated by their surrounds at St Mirren Park, perhaps burdened either by the frustrations of their own supporters or by the knowledge that it is a venue where they have not produced many recent happy memories. It is a mindset that has to change if they are to finally secure that much sought-after home win.

"It starts to become a self-fulfilling prophecy if you believe you can't win at home," revealed Tom Lucas, the respected sports psychologist who has worked with Celtic and Motherwell among a host of professional athletes. "The problem in football, in particular, is that they often cling to superstitions like using the same hotel every week when they're on a good run then change it when they lose as if it had been the hotel's fault! It's a flawed mentality.

"And when a team keeps losing at home, as St Mirren have been doing, it becomes a negative mindset. And that has to be changed. Players start to fear playing in their own stadium, rather than seeing it as an advantage. They may prefer playing away from home as there are fewer of their own spectators there - in terms of giving them abuse - and they can relax more as the scrutiny is less as when they're at home. That has an impact. If you know that when you go out the tunnel at home there are people waiting for your first mistake then it's hardly conducive for doing your best. It's up to the players and the manager to overcome that mentality."

Lucas recommends shaking up the pre-match routine to try to instigate change. "They need to break up the pattern of how they prepare. Freshen it up, do something different so that the mind is taken off the negative things. Put things in the dressing room that get you thinking differently. There has to be a cultural change, led by the manager, to try to bring about different outcomes.

"You need to look at your home dressing room. Is it fresh? Is it welcoming? Is it bright? Are there statements on the wall that inspire you? You need to be a bit more creative in changing people's mindset.

"Too often players see it entirely as the manager's responsibility. Individuals need to take responsibility, too. You need to identify who are the strong positive characters in the team and build things around them. It's all about changing the mindset. If you're beaten before you get out there then you're as well sticking on the kettle and not bothering. It's about telling yourself, "this slump is now over". And then believing it and making it happen."