IT was good to watch the first leg of the play-off final the other night and just be glad Ross County weren't involved.

For a while, though, it looked like we weren't even going to make the play-offs. At the end of January we were bottom of the table, six points adrift of Mother- well. Something had to change and thankfully we were able to turn things around. Finishing ninth was beyond anything we could have hoped for.

We knew we had to change playing personnel in January as being realistic, what we had probably wasn't going to get us to safety. There were some who were maybe just accepting what was happening and hoping it would turn. You can't just hope these things will happen. You have to make it happen.

So we looked for characters, guys who would also be leaders in the dressing room. We wanted boys who, even when they weren't at their best, you knew you would get the full tank out of them in terms of commitment. Sometimes you have players who, when they're not playing well, shrink away. We couldn't afford that in our situation.

The introduction of new faces helped lift the dressing room as we had hoped. It became infectious. Some, like Liam Boyce and Filip Kiss, realised what was happening and used it to deliver big performances. We had a stronger mentality on the pitch. There was a real desire to graft for everything, even if an individual wasn't playing as well as he could. Then we started winning and that brought confidence. And from there it just rolled on from week to week.

We changed a few things from a coaching perspective. We moved to a 4-4-2 formation and encouraged our wingers to track their full-backs up and down the pitch, rather than passing them on to our full-back. We made individuals take responsibility. And added to the stronger mentality, the growing confidence, and the other players being dragged along by the influence of the new guys - it all clicked into place for us.

We were still adrift after the close of the transfer window but we certainly hadn't given up. Manager Jim McIntyre and I put targets up on the board of how many points we thought we would take from the games coming up. We had to be realistic. We were looking at it and wondering, "where are we going to get these points from?"

Then we went on a run and surpassed all our expectations. We had a best-case scenario target, and then a realistic one, and we thought we would do well just to get the realistic one. But we ended up getting way beyond it. And that is all down to the players who bought into what we wanted to do.

One of the turning points was a 4-0 defeat at Pittodrie in early February, strange as that is to say. We could have slaughtered the boys after it but instead we just told them it was one of those days and that the season started from there. We probably had just a bit more of a third of the campaign to eat into that points deficit and the boys grasped the opportunity. We beat Motherwell the next week, then won at Firhill and started to feel something was building. We didn't lose again until the end of April, winning eight games and drawing one. It exceeded everything we could have hoped for.

But now, though, we have to make sure we don't go through that all again. We've let 14 players go, a lot of them fringe players. But we don't want to keep doing that twice a season. We need to get to a point where you're maybe only tweaking two or three positions each time.

In the January window Jim and I were both ill as we were trying to change nine positions - it was horrible. And that was all to ensure survival. That's not healthy. As a club we need to have more of a long-term vision and hopefully we can help deliver that.

IT seems obvious to say it but the first goal will be vital at Fir Park this afternoon. Rangers gave themselves a bit of a lifeline with that late goal at Ibrox but there is still a lot for them to do. If they can score first, and early, then they will give themselves a chance. A Motherwell goal, though, and I think it's all over.

I think it might suit 'Well to play on the counter again, with the pace they've got in attack. That worked for them in the first leg and, with the onus on Rangers to come at them, they might get some joy that way again and kill the tie.