JACK ROSS believes the secret to St Mirren’s success this season was the near disaster of the previous campaign.
A year ago, the Paisley side were fighting relegation. Under Ross, the results had drastically improved but dropping down to the third tier of Scottish football was a very real concern at this stage.
And 12 months on, St Mirren will seal a promotion which has been on the cards for months if they win at Brechin City on Saturday and Livingston drop points at home to Morton. If it doesn’t happen this weekend then it will happen the next.
Steve Clarke is likely going to win a clutch of manager of the year awards, even if Brendan Rodgers wins another treble, but Ross should be a candidate given where his club was when he took over, bottom of the Championship, to a few points away from getting back to the Premiership.
“We have been clear on our ambitions for a long time and even recently I haven’t shied away from that or, really, tried to protect the players. We have been the opposite,” said Ross.
“We’ve tried to make them realise what they could achieve and how close they are to achieving it. They’ve responded it to it well to be fair because that that could be a risk.
“However, they have played well and produced results throughout the season. I have no reason, as the manager, to doubt they won’t finish off the job.
“Last season, we had a group that dealt with must-win games for probably the last four months of the season. It was real pressures and it didn’t relent because it went right to the last game of the season.
“That stood us in good stead because the core of that group remains. It was then easier for me as a manager to then make sure they wanted that again. That’s what the best teams do, that’s why they are successful.
“We wanted to create this expectation in here but having that foundation, if you like, was good. I knew we had the players who could handle that and we’ve been able to recruit others who bought into it.”
Ross was yesterday speaking at St Mirren’s training facility. Laughter could be heard from the first-team dressing room and if the players can’t enjoy themselves now then when?
“The excitement levels are growing because the reward is almost there,”said Ross. “The players have been relentless all season.
“The way they trained today, for example, makes my job dead easy. They are a great group and buy into the way things the way we want to do it.”
So, when did Ross and the players start to think that this season just might belong to them?
“We played Dundee united at home early in the season, and at that time they were seen as title favourites and rightly so, and we won 3-0,” he recalled. “We were really good that day and it made some, not all, of our players thought that we could be good here.
“And at Queen of the South we are two down after four minutes and come back to win 3-2. That was really important for the players.”
Ross and his assistant James Fowler will move on eventually. Dundee and Barnsley wanted them and someone else will make them an offer they can’t refuse. Until then, the manager is happy to be at St Mirren and when promotion is clinched, relief, joy and pride.
Glebe Park could be the place to be on Saturday if results go St Mirren’s way.
“It has been an understanding of how good people are who win leagues regularly, players or coaches because it is bloody hard work,” said Ross with a grin. “It is relentless, a constant drive to get better. Enjoyable, but really demanding.
“We’re still learning as a managerial team. There has never been a point when we’ve both patted each other on the back and said, ‘We’re great - we’re doing really well.’
“The conversations we have are much more, ‘Did we get this right and how can we do it better?’
“When we do it, for me, it would be the biggest thing I’ve done in the game.”
It won’t be his last achievement.
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