What a difference a year makes...
The first anniversary of Alex Rae’s sacking will pass this weekend to few or no tears around Greenhill Road – nor you would imagine any in the Rae household, with the former St Mirren boss being rather less than complementary whenever the club are mentioned in his other job on national radio since last September.
At the time of his dismissal, I admit, I thought the decision was on the harsh side – moreso because it came so early into the season than anything else.
But hindsight is a wonderful thing when you consider what has followed since and where this great club seems to be heading – and heading with an air of unity that hasn’t been felt in a long time.
The past 12 months have been a whirlwind, yet in some ways it feels like forever ago that Rae trudged off the pitch at Dumbarton safe in the knowledge that the banks of the Clyde would be the final outpost of successive St Mirren managers.
Defiant as always, Rae proclaimed after the match that he was in no way worried that his tenure was perhaps coming to an end, but as we all know now the death knell came with a bullet-like brief statement on the old Saints website.
Quips about never being given a chance, or that infamous win record that supposedly exists, should have been left at the door when he handed back his pale blue trackie for the final time. Though some forgive, I suppose many won’t forget his reign in too much of a hurry.
From D- day in Dumbarton, St Mirren headed to Dunfermline under the temporary charge of Allan McManus, a man whose role can’t be overlooked in last year’s resurgence.
At the end of the day, his point against Falkirk helped Saints stay up, while a win over Hibs eventually helped the side get to a cup final. But it is changed days indeed. When McManus led the charge to Fife last season, St Mirren were a club in turmoil with a threat of uncertainty surrounding every one involved.
After all, no-one was 100 per cent sure how the new board and ownership would work out, and the club was sitting bottom of the league, without a manager, after four games.
And to go and make matters worse, even though St Mirren produced their most gutsy performance up until that point in the campaign, Kyle Hutton still had to go and make THAT backpass.
A pass that summed up the season until that point. Farcical. Embarrassing. Painful. But this weekend Saints head back to East End Park as a side that bears no reflection to the one that looked defeated both on and off of the park on that freezing Saturday night, which BBC Alba had the cheek to push back to a half five kick off just to broadcast to those sick individuals who wanted to watch.
Of the starting 11 that night, it would be fair to assume that only three of them will start tomorrow’s game, in the shape of Gary Irvine, Jack Baird and Lewis Morgan. John Sutton will probably take a spot on the bench. Of the other seven? Well, Gary MacKenzie is injured. Scott Gallacher and the aforementioned Hutton are both now at Dumbarton, Mallan at Barnsley, Naismith at Ross County, Rocco Quinn without a club, and Ryan Hardie acting as a nice benchwarmer at Ibrox.
It really has been a rip it up and start again job from the Buddies since then, and now they look like a side that are comfortable with the tag of being a team expected to challenge at the right end of the table.
To hear the chants about being top of the league last weekend was something that has never echoed out of the stands since the bygone days of Love Street.
Everyone yearns for a return to the top flight, but some of the best memories over the decades have come in the country’s second tier.
The title win of 2000 will forever go down in history.
And it looks like, even at this early stage, that St Mirren and Dunfermline will be going at it hammer and tongs in a bid to clinch that top spot just like they did 17 years ago.
St Mirren prevailed on that occasion, clinching the title as both sides went up thanks to the SPL’s expansion.
This time there is only one spot up for grabs, and a win tomorrow could already go a long way to deciding who is in the mix come May.