AS September neared its end last year, St Mirren lost at Hamilton Academical and slipped into 11th place in the Premiership with six games gone.

Some 31 fixtures later, the Paisley men remain in the play-off spot. The only time they managed to change position was when they dropped to 12th, bottom of the rest, behind a dreadful Dundee side.

One thing has changed. St Mirren now have hope.

At Dens Park on Saturday afternoon, if Oran Kearney’s side can better the result of Hamilton Academical, who face St Johnstone at home, they will reach the heady heights of 10th and safety right at the death.

Hamilton are a point better off but have a far worse goal-difference. It gives St Mirren a chance to avoid a play-off – although even that second chance to stay up at one stage seemed improbable.

On Monday night in Paisley, St Mirren beat Hamilton thanks to two late goals. It means that a hugely unlikely comeback might just be on.

Kearney said: “I have been involved in different chases in football before and I’ve always found it is easier to be the hunter than the hunted. For us this season, we have been nothing but 11th or 12th and we have always been the hunter. 

“We have never been in a position where we are ahead and teams are chasing us – it would have been interesting to see how our players would have reacted in that scenario.

“But perfection would probably be in the timing, if for the first time on Saturday we go 10th and can’t be hunted. The timing would be impeccable on our part.
“The levels of resilience would give me confidence. If you had taken our team from January into Monday night’s scenario then I’m not sure they would have dealt with it and got over the line.

“But with the momentum we have built with the new players there is a different feel about the place. We have had a few late goals in recent weeks.

“At first it is good luck, but when you do it for three or four games in 
a row, and you continually show that mindset, then sometimes you have got to attribute it to something a bit more than luck.”Kearney walked into a dressing room filled with players not good enough to play at the level, while those who could do a job were playing badly and had no confidence. It’s fair to say there have been dark moments.

The Irishman said: “The anxiety was when we were seven or eight points behind Hamilton and five or six behind Dundee and looking as if we would go out with a whimper with one of the lowest totals ever in Premiership history.

“But since then we’ve picked up a few results and got closer to the other teams we now find ourselves in bonus territory. We are in a place where the majority of people in football did not expect us to reach. It would be brilliant to go one step further and finish the job.”

At worst, St Mirren will be in a play-off against either Dundee United or Inverness and would be favourites to get past the two games.

Which is much better than the supporters would have feared not so long ago and when Kearney struggled at the start and defeat followed defeat, few would have dared dream that their team would still be alive on the final weekend of the season.

Kearney said: “It was a slow start in everybody else’s minds because when you make signings in January everyone wants an instant impact.

“If you sign 10 players from Scottish football then you deserve instant success because those players know Scottish football inside out.

“But when we make 10 signings from across the planet pretty much, people forget that these players are in hotels for the first couple of weeks, then we are trying to find accommodation and acclimatise to life in Scotland and everything else.

“We went through that stage in late January and into February where we were sorting all that stuff out.

“But it was the game away to Aberdeen when everything clicked. We went up the night before and there was a really good feel about it that day. 

“All the new players did their initiation songs and it really felt for the first time that there was a real togetherness there.”