WHEN St Mirren posted a loss of £1.6m in their annual accounts, the disappointing results were seized upon by some supporters of Celtic and Rangers as a comeuppance for the club’s temerity to slash – it is never simply ‘reduce’ - their ticket allocations for their visits to the SMiSA Stadium.

Never mind that the accounting period in question ended in May 2022, before the decision to retain the Tony Fitzpatrick Family Stand for Saints supporters was made. This was proof positive that so-called provincial clubs turn up their nose to the Old Firm pound at their peril.

Keith Lasley may only have been a chief operating officer for a short time, but the former Motherwell midfielder has been around the game long enough to know that for a football club, their own supporters should be their first and main consideration when making decisions of such strategic importance.

Yes, he has a duty to ensure that St Mirren balance the books, but in the future, he firmly believes it is precisely because they have placed their own fans at the heart of their mission that they will be able to do just that.

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His conviction may raise a wry smile from any St Johnstone fans reading, given their club’s decision to turn over three quarters of McDiarmid Park to Rangers for their recent Scottish Cup tie that sparked a boycott and ensured just 400 home fans attended the match.

There are no such worries at St Mirren, who are on course to record their highest ever average home attendance over the course of the season, and Lasley is sure that the uptick is at least partly due to the fact the Saints fans have been made to feel as if their stadium is their own.

“When I think back to that time, the first thing we did was consult the fans,” Lasley said. “We gave the fans a say by putting a survey out the fanbase.

“As far as we are concerned, it is our fans’ stadium. It is The SMiSA Stadium, but it belongs to them, essentially.

“We want every strategic decision moving forward, particularly a big one like that, to have our supporters at the heart of those decisions and they have a say.

“Personally, for me, I would almost like to take the Old Firm out of that issue. For me, all home matches, whoever it is we play - whether it be Real Madrid, Barcelona, the Old Firm or Greenock Morton – our supporters are our first concern when they come to our home stadium.

“For me, that’s what it’s about. We want to turn our family stand into something that we can encourage families from Renfrewshire and beyond to come to for every home game, and for them to have an enjoyable experience.

“That’s really it in a nutshell. It’s not about the Old Firm or any other team. It’s about a sense of belonging, and that is hopefully something we can really build on moving forward.

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying for a minute it’s easy to make that call, and that there isn’t a financial consideration in the short term. Of course there is.

“Anyone who is involved in any business has to have those considerations, particularly when there are financial pressures for Scottish football clubs, which is obviously the case for every club of our size.

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“But at the heart of all these big strategic decisions for the club has got to be doing what is right by our supporters, and if we feel that something is going to be to the detriment of that, then we’ve got to seriously consider that.

“For me, it is about the experience. That no matter what section of the support you are in – whether you are coming to your first game as a young kid or if you’ve been following St Mirren for 50, 60 years and everyone in between – it is about looking after them first and foremost.

“That is the primary consideration for us.”

The SMiSA Stadium is the current moniker of St Mirren’s ground, which has been known by many names – not all of them complimentary or printable in a family newspaper – since the club made the move there from Love Street in January 2009.

It may never replace the famous old ground in the affections of supporters of a certain vintage, but finally, after 14 years, there is a creeping sense this season that the stadium is starting to feel like home.

“I remember playing at Love Street and being in the stands there at times,” Lasley said.

“It was a fantastic old stadium that holds fantastic memories for our supporters. But it’s about making new memories, making new connections to the new stadium. It’s a fantastic facility.

“In the West Stand now the fans themselves have been in to paint murals in the interior of the stands, and I think we are really starting to build the connection with the stadium as well. I think that’s coming.

“We have a lot of initiatives going on in our Tony Fitzpatrick Family Stand, every primary school in Renfrewshire now has season tickets for that stand, so there’s a real push to get as many families and fans into that stand as we can for all home matches.

“Our own academy, our girl’s academy, are in there every game. And right across the stadium, whether that is our long-term hardcore fans, our young groups like W7 who are always there…every aspect of our support, we want to connect to.

“We want to make sure that when they come to the SMiSA Stadium, they own it. They feel that belonging in the stadium.”

As far as how the first season in the job is going then, Lasley has few complaints. Stephen Robinson’s men are currently flying high in fourth place in the Premiership, with the fans clearly buying into the direction the manager is taking the team, and where Lasley is helping steer the club.

As any Saints supporter will attest, though, footballing fortunes can be prone to fluctuation, which is why Lasley is keen to ensure that St Mirren stands for more than just what happens for 90 minutes once or twice a week.

His goal is to ensure that the club becomes the cornerstone of its community, a presence for good in the area; win, lose or draw.

“I certainly would have signed up for this in May!” he said.

“If there was one thing that I really wanted to emphasise and push since I’ve come in, it is that community aspect.

“The football side and the good results we are having obviously amplifies that goodwill, but there has been a lot of hard work that has gone into it too from a lot of people in all different departments of the club.

“My goal is that when someone looks at the St Mirren badge, they think about that community aspect of the club. Yes, it stands for the football on a Saturday, and it stands for us all coming to watch the team play, but it’s about more than that.

“It’s more than the football, it’s about us being at the heart of Paisley, at the heart of Renfrewshire, and really playing our part in the community.

“There have been tough times for people recently and it continues to be tough for a lot of people, and it is our role as far as I’m concerned to really help the local people, supporters and community groups.

“It has been a big focus of mine to try and connect with as many local institutions as we can, and make sure that St Mirren is somewhere that connects people. It connects businesses, it connects schools, connects community groups.

“Coming to the SMiSA Stadium on a Saturday is about the football, but it’s also about connection to the local area, and that will certainly be a continual push moving forward.”

Quite the change from tearing about the midfield, then. Though Lasley knows his trademark tenacity may well come in handy at points down the line.

“Coming into a role like this for me after predominantly just being involved in the football side of things has brought with it new challenges for me personally, and I’ve had to build relationships right across the club as a whole,” he said.

“I’ve really enjoyed it. There are challenges of course, like all football clubs in Scotland have, but that’s the nature of the beast. Our job is to overcome those challenges, and I think the club are making progress in a lot of different areas.

“That’s not to say that there aren’t more challenges around the corner, which there undoubtedly will be both on and off the park at some point, but a big part of the attraction in taking the job in the first place was to come in and have an influence on the club as a whole.

“For me and my future, it was something I wanted to get involved in, and for the first eight months it has lived up to its billing. I’ve been involved in everything right across the board from the football side to the commercial side, you name it.

“It’s a great group of people, a tight staff, and we are all pulling in the one direction, which is really important.”