Side’s recent success is down to new formation

St Mirren manager Jack Ross admits he may have struck lucky, having stumbled upon Saints’ winning formula.

Injuries and suspensions have forced Ross to switch from his favoured 4-4-2 formation to a 3-5-2 in recent weeks, with Liam Smith and Stelios Demetriou slotting in as wing backs alongside three centre halves.

The sending offs of Gary Irvine and Jack Baird, as well as the injuries to Gary MacKenzie and Harry Davis have seen the Paisley side adopt the new shape for their past two league outings against Livingston and Dundee United — and so far so good following 3-1 and 3-0 victories.

The St Mirren boss was quick to confirm that it was something he was forced into it, having been left with a mini defensive crisis in the run up to the clash away to Livi.

Ross explained: “I am honest enough to say as a manager that sometimes you get slightly fortunate and my hand was forced at Livingston because I only had one centre back available, meaning I had to turn things around.

“I have since had time to look at the system properly and ways in which we can get Lewis Morgan and Cammy Smith in forward areas.

“But, as a whole team, our shape has been terrific.

“And I am delighted about the weekend’s clean sheet because we have not had one of those for a while.

“I think I’ve said often enough after games that we had a strange start to the season.

“We were very good at times and then we were poor. We had defensive issues throughout the team, not just the defence, but as a whole.

“However, it looks like we have settled into this shape and, to a man, the team has been very good.”

The side’s recent form has seen the rest of the Championship sit up and take notice of the Buddies, despite an early defeat to Morton.

And, with players coming back from injury in the coming weeks, Ross insists that expectations are high.

He added: “We looked at our start on paper and it was arguably the most difficult start out of all the clubs that were looking to challenge.

“We suffered a disappointing defeat amongst all those games as well, but I think our character to bounce back from that, and the manner of our win, at the weekend was fantastic.

“We have spoken about players coming back, with Adam Eckersley getting stronger and stronger every week. Magennis is getting very close to a return, as is Harry Davis, so things are in a positive way.”

We had a strange start to the season