IT was hard to avoid a sense of fatalism as you walked around St Mirren's Ralston training ground this week.

Motherwell's defeat to Partick Thistle yesterday might have offered the merest chink of light, but in truth the Paisley remain marooned in no man's land of sorts, with the nagging suspicion that their ten-point deficit on the rest of the division is simply too big to overcome.

The recriminations have already started but for now there is an imperative on the club simply to keep moving forward. Momentum is badly needed, as much for next season as this one.

There are plenty of examples out there for the Paisley side to look to for inspiration. The effort put in by Hearts youngsters under Gary Locke in a doomed cause last season largely laid the ground work for their triumphant Championship success this time around, while Gary Teale might not that Neil Lennon earned himself the permanent Celtic job on the strength of the performances he eked out of his side at the end of the 2009-10 season, when the league was already a hopeless cause.

Only seven players are under contract at St Mirren Park beyond this summer, most of them promising young players. Even if this season's odds prove too great to overcome, Teale sees no reason why with the addition of a few seasoned old heads, they couldn't be back in the top flight in 12 months time.

"The example of the young boys at Hearts is a good blueprint for us," said Teale. "We need to try to look forward to the next six games. You can't feel sorry for yourself. Winning games is where you get momentum from."

Of course, in an ideal world Teale would be able to start making hard-headed decisions on contracts right away. Instead, he has no idea even whether they will be his choices to make. "I don't know what the situation is for next season for myself," he said. "But at the end of the day there is a duty of care. They are human beings with families. If you have to make these decisions you would like a wee bit of time for preparation."

This has been a brutal old baptism for Teale since taking over from the tatters of the Tommy Craig reign halfway through the season. But the desperation of the situation has done little to dampen his enthusiasm for a career in coaching. He embarks on his Pro Licence course this summer, and enjoyed a few days in the company of Gordon Strachan and the A squad at Mar Hall recently. "It IS a lonely place," he said. "As much as you do have people around you trying to pick you up and things like that, you have so much going through your head. 'Could I have done better here? Can I put it right for the next time? But I'm still loving it."

As for those recriminations, centre half Marc McAusland for one thinks Danny Lennon, named this week as manager of Alloa, was dealt with rather harshly when his contract wasn't renewed. This is quite a statement, considering his father Brian is one of the directors who made that decision. "It icould have been a bit rash, a bit quick to sack him or for them to part ways the way they did," he said.

Whatever transpires against Ross County on Monday night, McAusland hopes for better than a display at Fir Park on Tuesday night which he regards as an "embarrassment". Having played in the Championship with Queen of the South, McAusland knows exactly how hard a division it is. Next season, of course, Rangers and/or Hibs are sure to be in it. "It is a really hard league to get out of, I am not sure people in the top league realise that," he said. "It is nowhere near a foregone conclusion that if we go down we will come back up."