It’s been a real rollercoaster
Jack Baird reflects on turbulent campaigns
As everything changed at St Mirren, one thing remained constant –Jack Baird.
Flung in at the deep end as a freshfaced 18-year-old by Tommy Craig, the centre back could be forgiven for assuming fighting relegation is a given when pulling on the black and white stripes of the Saints.
With the club having lurched from one periless campaign to another Baird, now 22, has witnessed more turmoil than some players see in their whole career.
But having clocked nearly 90 appearances, the club’s longestserving player appears to be finally getting his rewards for sticking it out.
St Mirren moved top of the league in the wake of the weekend’s win over Inverness Caledonian Thistle, the first time in Baird’s tenure at the club, and he admitted that he wasn’t too sure how to take it.
Baird told Express Sport: “It feels weird – but it’s brilliant.
“It is an amazing feeling just to see St Mirren top of the league. It is the first time in my time here.
“The start of the season has been great, minus the Morton game, but you can’t complain.
“I just hope it continues. We are so dangerous on the attack with guys like Lewis Morgan, Gavin Reilly and even the ones that come off the bench are a threat. We know we are going to score goals and the key is just trying to keep the ball out of our own net. This is probably the happiest I have ever seen everybody at the club.
“The end of last season was massive and you wanted it to continue, the whole summer you just wanted to get back in and play again, and now we are and doing well, you can’t beat it.”
In some ways Baird has had the events of recent years to thank for being given the opportunity to shine.
He concedes it has been something of a rollercoaster ride but reckons this is the most positive he has felt about the side since he made his debut at Hamilton in 2013.
He added: “I’ve enjoyed playing the last few years, but it has obviously been difficult and tough.
“We always seemed to get off to a terrible start, and then you are just fighting the whole way to the end of the season trying to get enough points.
“This season we have obviously started well and are just looking to keep it up rather than pick it up, which is far better.
“Once the manager had come in last season, we had an international break so we had almost another pre season.
“We had two or three weeks without a game which allowed us to get to grips with how he wanted us to play.
“We went from there and it was almost a fresh start. The results didn’t pick up until a bit later on but we were playing better and it took a lot of time.”